Slavery and the Birth of an African City Lagos, 1760}}}1900 [Paperback]

As the slave trade entered its last, illegal phase in the 19th century, the town of Lagos on West Africas Bight of Benin became one of the most important port cities north of the equator. Slavery and the Birth of an African City explores the reasons for Lagoss sudden rise to power. By linking the histories of international slave markets to those of the regional suppliers and slave traders, Kristin Mann shows how the African slave trade forever altered the destiny of the tiny kingdom of Lagos. This magisterial work uncovers the relationship between African slavery and the growth of one of Africas most vibrant cities.

Mann's work is an intellectually engaging, multifaceted, and tantalizingly in-depth study of slavery's gradual demise. She does an admirable job of offering fresh insights into the redefinition and rearrangement of employer-worker relationships in Lagos County, especially in the last decade of the 19th century.American Historical ReviewBy looking at an emergent commercial town with deeply engrained political and economic competition, and relating this study to the wider library, Mann provides a fine example of how the rise and decline of African slavery can be traced in its complexity.This story is told by the author with the skill of a mastermaster researcher, master analyst, master story-teller, and master essayist.51, 3 Dec. 2008It may not be possible to write a better social history of Lagoslet alone less fully documented African port cities; and, even if it is, future scholars will have to recognize Mann's book as a benchmark.Jan 1, 2009A valuable contribution not only to African history, but also to the history of slavery on both sides of the Atlantic. . . . Brilliantly organized . . . Mann's style makes the reading enjoyable.June 2008The author covers a lot of ground in this book, and she fills in an important gap in the historiography of Lagos. Through her careful use of a set of primary sources not often used by historians for this pulcw