West African Origins

Eighteen-Sixty Was A Good Year to buy captives in Ouidah. The previous three years had been a boon for slave dealing in Dahomey. Such activity had not been seen for a long time, be- cause, since the early 1850s, when it got involved in the legitimate commerce in palm oil, the kingdom had reduced its slave-trading activities. King Ghezo had been firmly encouraged down this new path by Great Britain, and, parallel to diplomatic exhortation, London had blockaded the Dahomian ports for six months in 1851–1852 when it had become apparent that the kingdom had not renounced the transatlantic slave trade. Finally, on January 13, 1852, Ghezo had reluctantly agreed to sign a treaty abolishing the “export of slaves to foreign countries” and promising to punish severely any person who broke the law. Deprived of the revenues brought by the trade in people, the kingdom was to receive instead the income generated by the export of oil needed by the European industries.

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