Slaves for peanuts A story of conquest, liberation, and a crop that changed history

Jori Lewis

Book - 2022

"Author Jori Lewis reveals how demand for peanut oil in Europe ensured that slavery in Africa would persist well into the twentieth century, long after the European powers had officially banned it in the territories they controlled. Delving deep into West African and European archives, Lewis recreates a world on the coast of Africa that is breathtakingly real and unlike anything modern readers have experienced. Slaves for Peanuts is told through the eyes of a set of richly detailed characters--from an African-born French missionary harboring runaway slaves, to the leader of a Wolof state navigating the politics of French imperialism--who challenge our most basic assumptions of the motives and people who supported human bondage. At a ti...me when Americans are grappling with the enduring consequences of slavery, here is a new and revealing chapter in its global history" --

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Subjects
Genres
History
Published
New York : The New Press 2022.
Language
English
Main Author
Jori Lewis (author)
Physical Description
xiii, 367 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9781620971567
  • Preface
  • Part I.
  • 1. A Shelter for Runaway Slaves
  • 2. A Crossroads
  • 3. A Spark, a Solution, the Industrial Revolution
  • 4. From Here to There and Back Again
  • 5. A Peanut Ruse
  • 6. The Legend of Ndakaaru
  • 7. The Caravan
  • 8. Those of the Sand
  • 9. A Middleman
  • Part II.
  • 10. The People Who Came from the Sea
  • 11. The African Business
  • 12. Unholy Wars
  • 13. A Word on Slavery
  • 14. This Black Man from Gorée
  • 15. Lat Joor Wants His Slaves Back
  • Part III.
  • 16. A Sickness with No Name
  • 17. A Native Evangelist
  • 18. Ceebu Jën
  • 19. A Steamboat on Land
  • 20. The Ebbs and Flows of My Courage
  • Part IV.
  • 21. Saxayaay
  • 22. Springtime in Paris
  • 23. Reports from the Rivers
  • 24. A New Appeal
  • 25. The Fifteen Captives of Ndiack Ndiaye
  • 26. The Future of France
  • 27. A Word on Freedom
  • 28. The Civilizing Mission
  • 29. A Stain That Must Be Washed
  • Part V.
  • 30. A Delicate Business
  • 31. You Will Find Only Jackals and Hyenas
  • 32. A Colleague and a Partner
  • 33. Since the Invention of the Peanut
  • 34. Special Seeds
  • 35. Interregnums
  • 36. The Propagation of French Culture?
  • Part VI.
  • 37. The Darnel
  • 38. Bethesda
  • 39. Poor Lat Joor
  • 40. Go East!
  • 41. The Dawn of a New Era
  • 42. We Have Already Proven That the Negro Is Capable
  • Part VII.
  • 43. Lost and Found (Ephemera)
  • 44. Why Have the Peanuts Degenerated?
  • 45. Kerbala
  • 46. On the Run
  • 47. Your Civilization Has Not Dazzled Him
  • 48. This Land of My Ancestors
  • Part VIII.
  • 49. A Peanut Fable
  • 50. One of the Most Delicate Questions
  • 51. A Child from the Dark Continent
  • 52. Emaciated Lands
  • 53. Drink My Cup to the Dregs
  • 54. The Crushing Supremacy of the Peanut
  • 55. What Remained
  • Epilogue
  • Acknowledgments
  • A Note on Sources
  • Notes
  • Index
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Journalist Lewis, who is based in Senegal, debuts with an astute and distressing history of the links between slavery and peanut farming in 19th-century west Africa. According to Lewis, the rising demand for high-quality peanut oil for the European soap-making industry encouraged French colonial officials to ignore kidnapping and slave trading in the region, despite France's abolition of slavery in 1848. Noting that most of the enslaved's lives were poorly documented, Lewis relies heavily on the letters and records of Protestant missionary Walter Taylor. Originally from Sierra Leone, Taylor graduated from a French seminary and founded the Shelter for Runaway Slaves in Senegal, which helped fugitives obtain their "freedom papers." His heartfelt letters detail the struggles of west Africans caught between local chiefs and European officials, their efforts to preserve their cultural traditions, and the machinations of Lewis's mentor turned nemesis, François Villéger, whose racist attitudes undermined Taylor's missionary work. Lewis's skillful mining of Taylor's records and her own immersion in Senegalese culture results in a fascinating exploration of regional loyalties and the intricacies of western African slavery. This informative and compassionate account unearths a little-known chapter in the history of slavery and European imperialism. (Apr.)

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