The Fante and the Transatlantic Slave Trade

250 Pages·2011·10.59 MB·English

by  Rebecca Shumway

TT
REBECCA SHUMWAY is assistant professor The history of Ghana attracts popular
of history at the University of Pittsburgh. RH interest out of proportion to its small
“Indisputably a significant topic, solidly and comprehensively treated, AE size and marginal importance to the
effectively situated within the existing historiography, and offering N global economy. Ghana is the land of
new material which advances understanding of the topics dealt with.” F Kwame Nkrumah and the Pan-Africanist
A
S movement of the 1960s; it has been a
—Robin Law, emeRitus pRofessoR of afRican histoRy, univeRsity of stiRLing
AN temporary home to famous African
Americans like W. E. B. DuBois and Maya
“The Fante and the Transatlantic Slave Trade offers a novel reinterpreta- TT
Angelou; and its Asante Kingdom and
tion of eighteenth-century Gold Coast history in light of recent scholar- LE signature kente cloth—global symbols
ship on the Atlantic slave trade and the Atlantic World, and a partial
A of African culture and pride—are well
reexamination of the archival record. In making a case for profound A
known. Ghana also attracts a continuous
N
change in southern Akan history during the century when slave
N flow of international tourists because
exports were at their height, Shumway also attempts to refashion our
T of two historical sites that are among
understanding of the area’s seventeenth-century history.” D
I the most notorious monuments of the
—LaRRy w. yaRak, founding editoR of Ghana StudieS and C transatlantic slave trade: Cape Coast and
associate pRofessoR of afRican histoRy, texas a&m univeRsity T
Elmina Castles. These looming structures
H
S are a vivid reminder of the horrific trade
LE that gave birth to the black population of
A the Americas.

The Fante and the Transatlantic Slave
V
Trade explores the fascinating history of
E the transatlantic slave trade on Ghana’s
coast between 1700 and 1807. Here
T
author Rebecca Shumway brings to life
R
the survival experiences of southern
A Ghanaians as they became both victims
of continuous violence and successful
D
brokers of enslaved human beings. The
E era of the slave trade gave birth to a new
culture in this part of West Africa, just as it
was giving birth to new cultures across the
S Americas. The Fante and the Transatlantic
H
Slave Trade pushes Asante scholarship
U THE FANTE
AND THE to the forefront of African diaspora and
M
Atlantic World studies by showing the
W
TRANSATLANTIC integral role of Fante middlemen and
A
Y transatlantic trade in the development of
SLAVE TRADE the Asante economy prior to 1807.
668 Mt. Hope Avenue
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Rochester, NY 14620-2731, USA
of John Bannishee, by Gabriel Mathias, 1749. Photograph
P.O. Box 9, Woodbridge
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REBECCA SHUMWAY
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The Fante and the
Transatlantic Slave Trade
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Rochester Studies in
African History and the Diaspora
Toyin Falola, Series Editor
The Frances Higginbotham Nalle Centennial Professor in History
University of Texas at Austin
(ISSN: 1092-5228)
A complete list of titles in the Rochester Studies in African History and the
Diaspora series, in order of publication, may be found at the end of this book.
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The Fante and the
Transatlantic Slave Trade
Rebecca Shumway
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Copyright © 2011 by Rebecca Shumway
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation, no
part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system,
published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted,
recorded, or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission of the copyright owner.
First published 2011
University of Rochester Press
668 Mt. Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620, USA
www.urpress.com
and Boydell & Brewer Limited
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
www.boydellandbrewer.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-58046-391-1
ISSN: 1092-5228
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Shumway, Rebecca.
The Fante and the transatlantic slave trade / Rebecca Shumway.
p. cm. — (Rochester studies in African history and the diaspora, ISSN
1092-5228 ; v. 52)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-58046-391-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Slave trade—Ghana—
History—18th century. 2. Fanti (African people)—History—18th century.
3. Ashanti (Kingdom)—History—18th century. I. Title.
HT1394.G48S48 2011
381'.4409667—dc22
2011010288
A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
This publication is printed on acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America.
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For my dad, Wayne Perry Shumway
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Contents
List of Illustrations viii
Acknowledgments ix
Chronology xi
Introduction 1
1 Selling Gold and Selling Captives 25
2 Fanteland in the Atlantic World 53
3 A New Form of Government 88
4 Making Fante Culture 132
Conclusion 154
Notes 157
Bibliography 203
Index 225
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Illustrations
Figures
I.1 Main entrance of Anomabo Fort 5
I.2 View of Anomabo Fort from the sea 5
I.3 Map of the Gold Coast and vicinity circa 1750 23
1.1 Map of the Gold Coast in the seventeenth century 29
2.1 View of Cape Coast Castle from the sea 55
2.2 Anomabo Beach and the “bird rocks,” as seen from
Anomabo Fort 72
2.3 William Ansah Sessarakoo, son of Eno Baisie Kurentsi
(John Currantee) 80
3.1 Map of the Gold Coast circa 1746 94
3.2 Assin Manso, Donko Nsuo (Slave River) 109
3.3 Palace of the omanhene of Anomabo 125
4.1 Approach to the site of Nananom Mpow 135
4.2 Rocks where libations are poured at the edge of the
Nananom Mpow Grove 136
4.3 Asafo shrine, Anomabo (No. 2 Company) 149
4.4 Asafo shrine, Anomabo (No. 4 Company) 149
4.5 Asafo shrine, Anomabo (No. 6 Company) 150
Tables
1.1 Estimated regional departures of captives as part of total
Atlantic trade, 1626–1700 48
1.2 Estimated regional departures of captives from
African ports, 1676–1725 49
1.3 Volume of the Gold Coast slave trade, 1661–1805 50
3.1 Payments from Anomabo Fort to Africans, December 1752 to
December 1753 118
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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the numerous individuals and institutions that helped
to make this book possible. Ivor Wilks introduced me to African history at
Northwestern University and encouraged me to pursue graduate study. The
late professor John K. Fynn sparked my interest in Fante history during my
year of undergraduate study at the University of Ghana, Legon, in 1993–
94 and continued to share his insights—both as professor of history and as
Nana Budu Kuma IV of Abura Dunkwa—with me as I developed my doctoral
dissertation. Kristin Mann was a wonderful graduate advisor and has pro-
vided invaluable support during my early career in academia. I also received
generous support and tutelage from Edna Bay, Ivan Karp, and Cory Kratz
at Emory University. David Eltis served on my dissertation committee and
shared his works-in-progress with me. Many scholars have offered valuable
input, suggestions, and support. Over several years Robin Law generously
shared information about archives, provided copies of his works-in-progress,
and asked hard questions about Fante history. Emmanual Akyeampong and
John Parker showed interest in my project in its early stages and offered
insights about Gold Coast history and historiography during informal con-
versations when our paths have crossed Ghana and in the United States.
Joe Miller has been an enthusiastic supporter of my work as well and pro-
vided particularly useful insights during a recent NEH summer seminar at
the University of Virginia and a workshop at the International Institute for
Advanced Studies, in Accra. Christopher DeCorse has helped me to appreci-
ate the invaluable contribution of archaeology to the study of precolonial
Africa. Numerous colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh have read part
or all of this manuscript and helped my progress on the book in numerous
ways. I am indebted to Lara Putnam, Pat Manning, Reid Andrews, Rob Ruck,
Jonathan Scott, Bob Doherty, and Dick Ostreicher. In Ghana I have ben-
efi ted from the cooperation of numerous people in the Central Region who
granted me interviews. I am particularly grateful to the people of Anomabo,
including Nana Amonu XI and the Fare Guamu Apetempe music group,
who helped me better understand the importance of their town in Ghana’s
history. I also wish to thank the staffs of the Ghana National Archives in
Accra and Cape Coast, and the Institute of African Studies at the University
of Ghana, Legon. My stays in Ghana have been a joy, thanks to the generos-
ity of friends Auntie Asiedu, Ebenezer Aryee, and Harry and Margaret Blavo
of Accra and of the Hexagon Guest House in Cape Coast. Funding for this
project was provided by numerous institutions. A Fulbright-Hays doctoral
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