The Impact Of Slavery On West Africa

Throughout the fifteenth to the nineteenth century multiple aspects of West African society were dominated by the Atlantic slave trade, however it is debatable as to the nature and extent in which the institution transformed African culture and history as a whole. The Bight of Benin was Africa’s second largest slave trading zone , and therefore may have been the most affected area in West Africa. Slavery penetrated not only trade, politics, society and the economy of the area, but also in matters that have arguably taken less of a forefront, such as moral consciousness. Historians such as Lovejoy in his transformation thesis, opposed by Eltis, argue that West Africa was significantly transformed by slavery, and that the institution was on a large enough scale to have had a substantial effect on African culture . This can be seen specifically in the Bight of Benin, where prominent cities and states in the area, such as Lagos and Dahomey, grew and …show more content…
The main trading posts in this area were Whydah, Porto Novo, and arguably most importantly, Lagos. Lagos thrived under the Atlantic slave trade, as it “forever altered the destiny of the tiny kingdom of Lagos, and the town by the same name that formed its capital.” However, slavery itself was not the only industry aiding the transformation of the state: “By the time the slave trade finally ended at Lagos in the mid-nineteenth century, a new and, in the minds of many Europeans, revolutionary type of commerce had emerged to take its place” – a vegetable oil derived from a West African palm fruit . Arguably this industry would not have had the ability to prosper had it not been for the wealth gained from the slave trade in Lagos, facilitating and supporting the growth of this