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
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