Black Missionary in an Age of Enslavement

Download Black Missionary in an Age of Enslavement PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1538180073
Total Pages : 217 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (381 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Black Missionary in an Age of Enslavement by : Noel Leo Erskine

Download or read book Black Missionary in an Age of Enslavement written by Noel Leo Erskine and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2024-08-06 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much discussion of Protestant Christianity and its missions in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries is focused on the work of English missionary William Carey and American Missionaries Adoniram and Ann Judson, who travelled to India in 1793 and 1813. This book reframes this conventional understanding of mission studies and outreach by exploring the legacy and life of the enslaved American Baptist George Liele (1750–1825)—the first African American ordained to the Christian ministry. Black Missionary in an Age of Enslavement looks at Christianity and mission through the life and times of Liele, highlighting his travels as an itinerant preacher in South Carolina, Georgia, Jamaica (and through his protégé there, David George), Nova Scotia, Sierra Leone and, toward the end of his life, England. Liele knew what it meant to be both slave and free. In Jamaica, as in Savannah, he was imprisoned for his faith and saw the survival of the church as pivotal. Liele was a man of firsts: the first African American ordained to the Christian ministry (May 20, 1775), and the first missionary to take the Christian gospel outside the United States. It was Liele, more than any other missionary, who initiated the practice of offering education to native people both enslaved and free. With the hymnal in one hand and the Bible in the other, Liele taught the enslaved and free that they were destined for liberation.

African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade: Volume 1, The Sources

Download African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade: Volume 1, The Sources PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 110732808X
Total Pages : 587 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (73 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade: Volume 1, The Sources by : Alice Bellagamba

Download or read book African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade: Volume 1, The Sources written by Alice Bellagamba and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-05-13 with total page 587 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Though the history of slavery is a central topic for African, Atlantic world and world history, most of the sources presenting research in this area are European in origin. To cast light on African perspectives, and on the point of view of enslaved men and women, this group of top Africanist scholars has examined both conventional historical sources (such as European travel accounts, colonial documents, court cases, and missionary records) and less-explored sources of information (such as folklore, oral traditions, songs and proverbs, life histories collected by missionaries and colonial officials, correspondence in Arabic, and consular and admiralty interviews with runaway slaves). Each source has a short introduction highlighting its significance and orienting the reader. This first of two volumes provides students and scholars with a trove of African sources for studying African slavery and the slave trade.

Christian Slavery

Download Christian Slavery PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN 13 : 0812294904
Total Pages : 293 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (122 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Christian Slavery by : Katharine Gerbner

Download or read book Christian Slavery written by Katharine Gerbner and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2018-02-07 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Could slaves become Christian? If so, did their conversion lead to freedom? If not, then how could perpetual enslavement be justified? In Christian Slavery, Katharine Gerbner contends that religion was fundamental to the development of both slavery and race in the Protestant Atlantic world. Slave owners in the Caribbean and elsewhere established governments and legal codes based on an ideology of "Protestant Supremacy," which excluded the majority of enslaved men and women from Christian communities. For slaveholders, Christianity was a sign of freedom, and most believed that slaves should not be eligible for conversion. When Protestant missionaries arrived in the plantation colonies intending to convert enslaved Africans to Christianity in the 1670s, they were appalled that most slave owners rejected the prospect of slave conversion. Slaveholders regularly attacked missionaries, both verbally and physically, and blamed the evangelizing newcomers for slave rebellions. In response, Quaker, Anglican, and Moravian missionaries articulated a vision of "Christian Slavery," arguing that Christianity would make slaves hardworking and loyal. Over time, missionaries increasingly used the language of race to support their arguments for slave conversion. Enslaved Christians, meanwhile, developed an alternate vision of Protestantism that linked religious conversion to literacy and freedom. Christian Slavery shows how the contentions between slave owners, enslaved people, and missionaries transformed the practice of Protestantism and the language of race in the early modern Atlantic world.

George Liele's Life and Legacy

Download George Liele's Life and Legacy PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : James N. Griffith Endowed Seri
ISBN 13 : 9780881463897
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (638 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis George Liele's Life and Legacy by : David T. Shannon

Download or read book George Liele's Life and Legacy written by David T. Shannon and published by James N. Griffith Endowed Seri. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Writers of church and mission history have devoted very few pages to George Liele's ministry and most mentions ignore the global nature of his pioneer work, international influence, and legacy. Approaching Liele's life and legacy globally, theologically, and historically, this book is the byproduct of a collaboration of scholars and historians who share the belief that George Liele is truly an unsung hero and one whose leadership and journey needs to be recognized at this particular time in history.

The Black Urban Atlantic in the Age of the Slave Trade

Download The Black Urban Atlantic in the Age of the Slave Trade PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN 13 : 0812208137
Total Pages : 382 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (122 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Black Urban Atlantic in the Age of the Slave Trade by : Jorge Canizares-Esguerra

Download or read book The Black Urban Atlantic in the Age of the Slave Trade written by Jorge Canizares-Esguerra and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2013-07-03 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the era of the Atlantic slave trade, vibrant port cities became home to thousands of Africans in transit. Free and enslaved blacks alike crafted the necessary materials to support transoceanic commerce and labored as stevedores, carters, sex workers, and boarding-house keepers. Even though Africans continued to be exchanged as chattel, urban frontiers allowed a number of enslaved blacks to negotiate the right to hire out their own time, often greatly enhancing their autonomy within the Atlantic commercial system. In The Black Urban Atlantic in the Age of the Slave Trade, eleven original essays by leading scholars from the United States, Europe, and Latin America chronicle the black experience in Atlantic ports, providing a rich and diverse portrait of the ways in which Africans experienced urban life during the era of plantation slavery. Describing life in Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Africa, this volume illuminates the historical identity, agency, and autonomy of the African experience as well as the crucial role Atlantic cities played in the formation of diasporic cultures. By shifting focus away from plantations, this volume poses new questions about the nature of slavery in the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, illustrating early modern urban spaces as multiethnic sites of social connectivity, cultural incubation, and political negotiation. Contributors: Trevor Burnard, Mariza de Carvalho Soares, Matt D. Childs, Kevin Dawson, Roquinaldo Ferreira, David Geggus, Jane Landers, Robin Law, David Northrup, João José Reis, James H. Sweet, Nicole von Germeten.

Plantation Church

Download Plantation Church PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0195369130
Total Pages : 230 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (953 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Plantation Church by : Noel Leo Erskine

Download or read book Plantation Church written by Noel Leo Erskine and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2014-03 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Plantation Church, Noel Leo Erskine investigates the history of the Black Church as it developed both in the United States and the Caribbean after the arrival of enslaved Africans. Typically, when people talk about the "Black Church" they are referring to African-American churches in the U.S., but in fact, the majority of African slaves were brought to the Caribbean. It was there, Erskine argues, that the Black religious experience was born. The massive Afro-Caribbean population was able to establish a form of Christianity that preserved African Gods and practices, but fused them with Christian teachings, resulting in religions such as Cuba's Santería. Despite their common ancestry, the Black religious experience in the U.S. was markedly different because African Americans were a political and cultural minority. The Plantation Church became a place of solace and resistance that provided its members with a sense of kinship, not only to each other but also to their ancestral past. Despite their common origins, the Caribbean and African American Church are almost never studied together. This book investigates the parallel histories of these two strands of the Black Church, showing where their historical ties remain strong and where different circumstances have led them down unexpectedly divergent paths. The result will be a work that illuminates the histories, theologies, politics, and practices of both branches of the Black Church. This project presses beyond the nation state framework and raises intercultural and interregional questions with implications for gender, race and class. Noel Leo Erskine employs a comparative method that opens up the possibility of rethinking the language and grammar of how Black churches have been understood in the Americas and extends the notion of church beyond the United States. The forging of a Black Christianity from sources African and European, allows for an examination of the meaning of church when people of African descent are culturally and politically in the majority. Erskine also asks the pertinent question of what meaning the church holds when the converse is true: when African Americans are a cultural and political minority.

Slave Religion

Download Slave Religion PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0195174135
Total Pages : 414 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (951 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Slave Religion by : Albert J. Raboteau

Download or read book Slave Religion written by Albert J. Raboteau and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2004-10-07 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Twenty-five years after its original publication, Slave Religion remains a classic in the study of African American history and religion. In a new chapter in this anniversary edition, author Albert J. Raboteau reflects upon the origins of the book, the reactions to it over the past twenty-five years, and how he would write it differently today. Using a variety of first and second-hand sources-- some objective, some personal, all riveting-- Raboteau analyzes the transformation of the African religions into evangelical Christianity. He presents the narratives of the slaves themselves, as well as missionary reports, travel accounts, folklore, black autobiographies, and the journals of white observers to describe the day-to-day religious life in the slave communities. Slave Religion is a must-read for anyone wanting a full picture of this "invisible institution."

Rebecca's Revival

Download Rebecca's Revival PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674043456
Total Pages : 315 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (74 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Rebecca's Revival by : Jon F Sensbach

Download or read book Rebecca's Revival written by Jon F Sensbach and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rebecca's Revival is the remarkable story of a Caribbean woman--a slave turned evangelist--who helped inspire the rise of black Christianity in the Atlantic world. All but unknown today, Rebecca Protten left an enduring influence on African-American religion and society. Born in 1718, Protten had a childhood conversion experience, gained her freedom from bondage, and joined a group of German proselytizers from the Moravian Church. She embarked on an itinerant mission, preaching to hundreds of the enslaved Africans of St. Thomas, a Danish sugar colony in the West Indies. Laboring in obscurity and weathering persecution from hostile planters, Protten and other black preachers created the earliest African Protestant congregation in the Americas. Protten's eventful life--the recruiting of converts, an interracial marriage, a trial on charges of blasphemy and inciting of slaves, travels to Germany and West Africa--placed her on the cusp of an emerging international Afro-Atlantic evangelicalism. Her career provides a unique lens on this prophetic movement that would soon sweep through the slave quarters of the Caribbean and North America, radically transforming African-American culture. Jon Sensbach has pieced together this forgotten life of a black visionary from German, Danish, and Dutch records, including letters in Protten's own hand, to create an astounding tale of one woman's freedom amidst the slave trade. Protten's life, with its evangelical efforts on three continents, reveals the dynamic relations of the Atlantic world and affords great insight into the ways black Christianity developed in the New World.

Slavery's Heroes

Download Slavery's Heroes PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : CreateSpace
ISBN 13 : 9781500657574
Total Pages : 286 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (575 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Slavery's Heroes by : Doreen Morrison

Download or read book Slavery's Heroes written by Doreen Morrison and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2014-08-23 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Slavery's Heroes constitutes required reading for all who search for a rich historical resource for understanding the legacy of Baptist witness in Jamaica between 1783 and 1865. Dr Morrison's familiarity with extant original sources furnishes the tools for the coherent articulation of a fresh interpretation that is both credible and compelling." - Dr Neville G Callam, General Secretary, Baptist World Alliance "Dr Morrison has chronicled for us groundbreaking work in "Slavery's Heroes." For the first time we receive research with the quality of an eye witness account on the Ethiopian Baptists who with George Liele introduced Baptist work to Jamaica and the Caribbean and began a trail that led to the emancipation of enslaved people in the Caribbean and the founding of indigenous religions. This book is carefully researched and cogently argued." - Dr Noel L Erskine, Professor of Theology and Ethics, Emory University "Dr Morrison in this study of George Liele and his contemporaries has demonstrated that the modern Christian missionary movement owes more to African American Christianity than has previously been acknowledged. She elucidates skillfully how they dealt with the catholicity and particularities of the Christian faith in their obedience to God in its transmission and in this lies their relevance for our times and place." - Rev Dr Horace O Russell Emeritus Professor of Historical Theology and Dean of Chapel, Palmer Theological Seminary of Eastern University, St David's, USA; Formerly, President UTCWI, Kingston, Jamaica Coinciding with both the 230 year anniversary of the establishing of the first Baptist Church in Jamaica by the Ethiopian Baptist Society and it's brutal demise almost 150 years ago at Morant Bay, 'Slavery's Heroes' documents its pioneers; the men and women who led by George Liele, advocated for a nation from enslavement to emancipation and beyond. This work offers insight into a people, a faith and a movement which demonstrated boldness, bravery and self-sacrifice, as it sought to achieve freedom for generations of people it knew it would never meet.

Thoughts Upon Slavery

Download Thoughts Upon Slavery PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 32 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (117 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Thoughts Upon Slavery by : John Wesley

Download or read book Thoughts Upon Slavery written by John Wesley and published by . This book was released on 1774 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Oxford Handbook of Slavery in the Americas

Download The Oxford Handbook of Slavery in the Americas PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 9780198758815
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (588 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Slavery in the Americas by : Robert L. Paquette

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Slavery in the Americas written by Robert L. Paquette and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2016-01-28 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A series of penetrating, original, and authoritative essays on the history and historiography of the institution of slavery in the New World, written by a team of leading international contributors.

Faith and Slavery in the Presbyterian Diaspora

Download Faith and Slavery in the Presbyterian Diaspora PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1611462029
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (114 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Faith and Slavery in the Presbyterian Diaspora by : William Harrison Taylor

Download or read book Faith and Slavery in the Presbyterian Diaspora written by William Harrison Taylor and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-01-28 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Faith and Slavery in the Presbyterian Diaspora considers how, in areas as diverse as the New Hebrides, Scotland, the United States, and East Central Africa, men’s and women’s shared Presbyterian faith conditioned their interpretations of and interactions with the institution of chattel slavery. The chapters highlight how Presbyterians’ reactions to slavery –which ranged from abolitionism, to indifference, to support—reflected their considered application of the principles of the Reformed Tradition to the institution. Consequently, this collection reveals how the particular ways in which Presbyterians framed the Reformed Tradition made slavery an especially problematic and fraught issue for adherents to the faith. Faith and Slavery, by situating slavery at the nexus of Presbyterian theology and practice, offers a fresh perspective on the relationship between religion and slavery. It reverses the all too common assumption that religion primarily served to buttress existing views on slavery, by illustrating how groups’ and individuals reactions to slavery emerged from their understanding of the Presbyterian faith. The collection’s geographic reach—encompassing the experiences of people from Europe, Africa, America, and the Pacific—filtered through the lens of Presbyterianism also highlights the global dimensions of slavery and the debates surrounding it. The institution and the challenges it presented, Faith and Slavery stresses, reflected less the peculiar conditions of a particular place and time, than the broader human condition as people attempt to understand and shape their world.

African American Religion: A Very Short Introduction

Download African American Religion: A Very Short Introduction PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199373140
Total Pages : 161 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (993 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis African American Religion: A Very Short Introduction by : Eddie S. Glaude Jr.

Download or read book African American Religion: A Very Short Introduction written by Eddie S. Glaude Jr. and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-08-27 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the first African American denomination was established in Philadelphia in 1818, churches have gone beyond their role as spiritual guides in African American communities and have served as civic institutions, spaces for education, and sites for the cultivation of individuality and identities in the face of limited or non-existent freedom. In this Very Short Introduction, Eddie S. Glaude Jr. explores the history and circumstances of African American religion through three examples: conjure, African American Christianity, and African American Islam. He argues that the phrase "African American religion" is meaningful only insofar as it describes how through religion, African Americans have responded to oppressive conditions including slavery, Jim Crow apartheid, and the pervasive and institutionalized discrimination that exists today. This bold claim frames his interpretation of the historical record of the wide diversity of religious experiences in the African American community. He rejects the common tendency to racialize African American religious experiences as an inherent proclivity towards religiousness and instead focuses on how religious communities and experiences have developed in the African American community and the context in which these developments took place. About the Series: Oxford's Very Short Introductions series offers concise and original introductions to a wide range of subjects--from Islam to Sociology, Politics to Classics, Literary Theory to History, and Archaeology to the Bible. Not simply a textbook of definitions, each volume in this series provides trenchant and provocative--yet always balanced and complete--discussions of the central issues in a given discipline or field. Every Very Short Introduction gives a readable evolution of the subject in question, demonstrating how the subject has developed and how it has influenced society. Eventually, the series will encompass every major academic discipline, offering all students an accessible and abundant reference library. Whatever the area of study that one deems important or appealing, whatever the topic that fascinates the general reader, the Very Short Introductions series has a handy and affordable guide that will likely prove indispensable.

African American Lives in St. Louis, 1763-1865

Download African American Lives in St. Louis, 1763-1865 PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 1476627576
Total Pages : 215 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (766 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis African American Lives in St. Louis, 1763-1865 by : Dale Edwyna Smith

Download or read book African American Lives in St. Louis, 1763-1865 written by Dale Edwyna Smith and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2017-02-07 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The African American presence in St. Louis began in 1763 with the arrival of several free men of color who accompanied Pierre Laclede from New Orleans to set up a fur trading fort on the Mississippi. Within a few decades, the fort had become a prosperous commercial center whose proximity to the western frontier attracted a cosmopolitan community. African Americans in St. Louis--both slave and free--enjoyed greater autonomy and opportunity than those in urban areas of the South and East. Slaves in the city set legal precedent by filing hundreds of freedom suits, often based on the prohibition against slavery set by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. After a century in the region, many blacks enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War. Drawing on a wide range of sources, the author studies the history of slaves and free blacks in this city.

The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Emancipation

Download The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Emancipation PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0307389693
Total Pages : 450 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (73 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Emancipation by : David Brion Davis

Download or read book The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Emancipation written by David Brion Davis and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2015-01-06 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award 2014 With this volume, Davis presents the age of emancipation as a model for reform and as probably the greatest landmark of willed moral progress in human history. Bringing to a close his staggeringly ambitious, prizewinning trilogy on slavery in Western culture Davis offers original and penetrating insights into what slavery and emancipation meant to Americans. He explores how the Haitian Revolution respectively terrified and inspired white and black Americans, hovering over the antislavery debates like a bloodstained ghost. He offers a surprising analysis of the complex and misunderstood significance the project to move freed slaves back to Africa. He vividly portrays the dehumanizing impact of slavery, as well as the generally unrecognized importance of freed slaves to abolition. Most of all, Davis presents the age of emancipation as a model for reform and as probably the greatest landmark of willed moral progress in human history.

Historical Dictionary of the Baptists

Download Historical Dictionary of the Baptists PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Scarecrow Press
ISBN 13 : 0810862824
Total Pages : 713 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (18 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Historical Dictionary of the Baptists by : William H. Brackney

Download or read book Historical Dictionary of the Baptists written by William H. Brackney and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2009-04-13 with total page 713 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With 110 million members worldwide, Baptists are surpassed only by Roman Catholic and Orthodox groups as the largest segment of Christians. The term 'Baptist' has its origins with the Anabaptists, the denomination historically linked to the English Separatist movement of the 16th century. Although Baptist churches are located throughout the world, the largest group of Baptists lives in the Southern United States, and the Baptist faith has historically exerted a powerful influence in that region of the country. The second edition of the Historical Dictionary of the Baptists expands upon the first edition with an updated chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on important events, doctrines, and the church founders, leaders, and other prominent figures who have made notable contributions. This volume commemorates the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Baptist movement in 1609.

Slave Owners of West Africa

Download Slave Owners of West Africa PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 0253026024
Total Pages : 141 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (53 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Slave Owners of West Africa by : Sandra E. Greene

Download or read book Slave Owners of West Africa written by Sandra E. Greene and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-22 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this groundbreaking book, Sandra E. Greene explores the lives of three prominent West African slave owners during the age of abolition. These first-published biographies reveal personal and political accomplishments and concerns, economic interests, religious beliefs, and responses to colonial rule in an attempt to understand why the subjects reacted to the demise of slavery as they did. Greene emphasizes the notion that the decisions made by these individuals were deeply influenced by their personalities, desires to protect their economic and social status, and their insecurities and sympathies for wives, friends, and other associates. Knowing why these individuals and so many others in West Africa made the decisions they did, Greene contends, is critical to understanding how and why the institution of indigenous slavery continues to influence social relations in West Africa to this day.