Ouidah
Western African Studies
Lineages of State Fragility
Rural Civil Society in Guinea-Bissau
JOSHUA B. FORREST
Willing Migrants
Soninke Labor Diasporas, 1848–1960
FRANÇOIS MANCHUELLE
El Dorado in West Africa
The Gold-Mining Frontier, African Labor & Colonial Capitalism in the Gold Coast, 1875–1900
RAYMOND E. DUMETT
Nkrumah & the Chiefs
The Politics of Chieftaincy in Ghana, 1951–60
RICHARD RATHBONE
Ghanaian Popular Fiction
‘Thrilling Discoveries in Conjugal Life’ & Other Tales
STEPHANIE NEWELL
Paths of Accommodation
Muslim Societies & French Colonial Authorities in Senegal & Mauritania 1880–1920
DAVID ROBINSON
Slavery & Reform in West Africa
Toward Emancipation in Nineteenth Century Senegal & the Gold Coast
TREVOR R. GETZ
Ouidah
The Social History of a West African Slaving ‘Port’ 1727–1892
ROBIN LAW
Between the Sea & the Lagoon
An Eco-social History of the Anlo of South-eastern Ghana, c. 1850 to Recent Times
EMMANUEL AKYEAMPONG
West African Challenge to Empire
Culture & History in the Volta-Bani Anticolonial War
MAHIR SAUL & PATRICK ROYER
‘Civil Disorder is the Disease of Ibadan’
Chieftaincy & Civic Culture in a Yoruba City
RUTH WATSON
Smugglers, Secessionists & Loyal Citizens on the Ghana–Togo Frontier
The Lie of the Borderlands since 1914
PAUL NUGENT
Eurafricans in Western Africa
Commerce, Social Status, Gender & Religious Observance from the 16th to the 18th Century
GEORGE E. BROOKS
Fighting the Slave Trade
West African Strategies
SYLVIANE A. DIOUF (ED.)
‘Kola is God’s Gift’*
Agricultural Production, Export Initiatives & the Kola Industry in Asante & the Gold Coast c. 1820–1950
EDMUND ABAKA
Themes in West Africa’s History*
EMMANUEL AKYEAMPONG (ED.)
* forthcoming
Ouidah
The Social History of a West African Slaving ‘Port’ 1727–1892
ROBIN LAW
Professor of African History
University of Stirling
Ohio University Press
ATHENS
James Currey
OXFORD
eBook edition published 2016
Ohio University Press
James Currey
Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge
Suffolk IP12 3DF (GB)
Boydell & Brewer Inc.
668 Mt Hope Avenue
Rochester, NY 14620-2731 (US)
Copyright © Robin Law 2004
First published 2004
1 2 3 4 5 08 07 06 05 04
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Law, Robin
Ouidah : the social history of a West African slaving ‘port’, 1727-1892. - (West African studies)
1. Slave trade - Africa, West - History - 18th century 2. Slave trade - Africa, West - History - 19th century 3. Ouidah (Benin) - History - 18th century 4. Ouidah (Benin) - History - 19th century I. Title
966.8'3
ISBN 0-85255-498-2 (James Currey cloth)
ISBN 0-85255-497-4 (James Currey paper)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available on request
ISBN 0-8214-1571-9 (Ohio University Press cloth)
ISBN 0-8214-1572-7 (Ohio University Press paper)
Typeset in 10-1/2/11-1/2 pt Monotype Ehrhardt
by Long House Publishing Services, Cumbria, UK
ISBN 978-1-78204-775-9 (James Currey ePub eISBN)
ISBN 978-1-78204-976-0 (James Currey ePDF eISBN)
ISBN 978-0-8214-4552-5 (Ohio University Press eISBN)
To the memory of
the more than one million enslaved Africans
who passed through Ouidah
on their way to slavery in the Americas
or death in the Middle Passage
Contents
1. Origins: Ouidah before the Dahomian conquest
2. The Dahomian Conquest of Ouidah