Graham James D. The slave trade. The first problem is how closely connected the European slave trade was to the rise of Benin Did in fact the profits and firearms obtained from the slave trade significantly help the earty Oba to extend their rule? According to Egharevba the terri torial extent of the Benin Empire was markedly enlarged under Ewuare the Great Ozolua and Esigie While oral tradition dates the first use of firearms. It is important to note however that these wars were fought by the great warrior Oba Ozolua and Esi gie They were extending the work begun by Ewuare before the Portuguese first arrived the work of extracting tribute from the Edo-speaking people who resided near Benin proper The fact that the Portuguese offered manillas for prisoners does not logically presuppose that the Bini made war on their neighbors in order to earn manillas Although as Ramusio noted the Bini may have felt they were doing their erstwhile enemies the best service in the world by sending them to be sold in this way to other lands where there is an abundance of provisions; nevertheless it must be recognized that Benin with the rest of West Africa enjoyed vigor ous and separate life and was by no means entirely dependent upon the transatlantic market. There is indeed no evidence to prove that the slave trade in Benin proper was ever extensive absolute numbers Barros to be sure reported that great number of slaves were obtained at Gwato to be bartered at Mina but he also warned that Gwato was very unhealthy.

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Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave , [1] [2] who is someone forbidden to quit their service for another person a slaver , while treated as property. Historically, when people were enslaved, it was often because they were indebted, or broke the law, or suffered a military defeat, and the duration of their enslavement was either for life or for a fixed period of time after which freedom was granted. In the course of human history, slavery was a typical feature of civilization , [5] and legal in most societies, but it is now outlawed in all countries of the world, except as punishment for crime. In chattel slavery , the enslaved person is legally rendered the personal property chattel of the slave owner. In economics, the term de facto slavery describes the conditions of unfree labour and forced labour that most slaves endure.

Through an examination of early modern African-European encounters, African Kings and Black Slaves offers a reappraisal of the dominant depiction of these exchanges as simple economic transactions: rather, according to Herman L. Bennett, they involved clashing understandings of diplomacy, sovereignty, and politics. Prologue Chapter 1. Liberalism Chapter 2.