‘Legitimate’ Traders, the Building of Empires, and the Long-Term After-Effects in Africa
‘Legitimate’ Traders, the Building of Empires, and the Long-Term After-Effects in Africa
This chapter tries to find answers to some important questions regarding ‘legitimate trade’. While the 1807 Act made trading in enslaved Africans illegal, was it legitimate to trade in African produce when produced by indigenous slaves and transported to the coast also by slaves? And how ‘legitimate’ was it to supply slave traders with everything from vessels to bank accounts and the manufactured goods exchanged for enslaved children, women and men? To examine these issues, the chapter examines the firm of Forster & Smith, trading with West Africa from the early 19th century, and their relationship with the colonial and National governments of Britain in the post-abolition era.
Keywords: slave trade, legitimate trade, Forster and Smith, abolition, Gambia, Sierra Leone, peanut trade
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