West African Societies Before European Contact

The Transatlantic Slave Trade, 1480-1850

In this course, Dr Toby Green (King’s College, London) explores the history of the transatlantic slave trade, from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. We begin by thinking about some of the main characteristics of West African societies prior to European contact, before moving on in the second module to the question why Europeans began a slave trade from Africa instead of a different part of the world. After that, we think about why and how the English became involved in the transatlantic slave trade, focusing particularly on reasons related to their colonial projects in the New World. In the fourth module, we consider the reactions the slave trade provoked within West African societies and how these differed depending on factors such as ethnicity, class and political and cultural practices. Finally, we think about recent changes in the historiography of the transatlantic slave trade. We explore how historians have traditionally studied this topic and how critical approaches to the history of the slave trade have changed over the past three decades.

West African Societies Before European Contact

In this module, we think about the nature of precolonial West African societies, focusing in particular on their global connections, religious pluralism and their predominant orientation, culturally and economically, across the Sahara desert.