Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400–1800 PDF
Preview Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400–1800
more information – www.cambridge.org/9780521622172 Studies in Comparative World History Africa and Africans in the making of the Atlantic world, 1400-1800 Studies in Comparative World History Editors Michael Adas, Rutgers University Edmund Burke III, University of California, Santa Cruz Philip D. Curtin, The Johns Hopkins University Other books in the series Michael Adas, Prophets of Rebellion: Millenarian Protest Movements against the European Colonial Order (1979) Philip D. Curtin, Cross-Cultural Trade in World History (1984) Leo Spitzer, Lives in Between: Assimilation and Marginality in Austria, Brazil, and West Africa, 1780-1945 (1989) John Thornton, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1680 (1992) Marshall G. S. Hodgson and Edmund Burke III (eds.), Rethinking World History (1993) David Northrup, Indentured Labor in the Age of Imperialism, 1834-1922 (1995) Africa and Africans in the making of the Atlantic world, 1400-1800 Second edition JOHN THORNTON _CAMBRIDGE . :::. UNIVERSITY PRESS cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Tokyo, Mexico City Cambridge University Press 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, ny 10013-2473, usa www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521622172 © John Thornton 1992, 1998 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First edition published 1992 Second edition published 1998 19th printing 2011 A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Thornton, John Kelly, 1949– Africa and Africans in the making of the Atlantic world, 1400–1800. – 2nd [expanded] ed. p. cm. Rev. ed. of: Africa and Africans in the making of the Atlantic world, 1400–1800. 1992. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. isbn 0-521-62217-4 – isbn 0-521-62724-9 (pbk.) 1. Africa – Relations – Europe. 2. Europe – Relations –Africa. 3. Africa – Relations – America. 4. America – Relations – Africa. 5. Slavery. 6. Europe – History – 1492–1648. I. Thornton, John Kelly, 1949– Africa and Africans in the making of the Atlantic world, 1400–1800. II. Title. dt31.t516 1997 303.48´2604–dc21 97-39728 isbn 978-0-521-62217-2 Hardback isbn 978-0-521-62724-5 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Contents Preface to the second edition pagevii Abbreviations ix Maps x Source notes for Maps 1-3 xv Introduction 1 Part I Africans in Africa 1 The birth of an Atlantic world 13 2 The development of commerce between Europeans and Africans 43 3 Slavery and African social structure 72 4 The process of enslavement and the slave trade 98 Part II Africans in the New World 5 Africans in colonial Atlantic societies 129 6 Africans and Afro-Americans in the Atlantic world: life and labor 152 7 African cultural groups in the Atlantic world 183 8 Transformations of African culture in the Atlantic world 206 9 African religions and Christianity in the Atlantic world 235 10 Resistance, runaways, and rebels 272 11 Africans in the eighteenth-century Atlantic world 304 Index 335 v Preface to the second edition When I began writing this book in 1984, I imagined that I would be writing a fairly specialized work for scholars and a few interested laypeople, as a way of advancing Africa into the Braudelian scheme of Atlantic history that inspired me. In my vision, it was to be a reference book for the non-Africanist historian and would be based on a virtually complete reading of the primary sources. To that aim, it was originally to offer coverage up to about 1650 (the limit within which I felt I could handle the sources comprehensively) and would be mostly confined to Africa, my area of expertise. In fact, the first draft of the book had only one rather sketchy chapter on the American side of the exchange. I was gradually persuaded that the book would be more useful if it were more ambitious, and as it grew into the volume published in 1992, I added a much larger and more carefully argued section on the Americas in place of the original chapter. I also expanded the time frame to 1680, mostly so that I could have a few meaningful things to say about early colonial North America. As I expanded the territorial and temporal boundaries of the book, I , also slowly and reluctantly recognized that I could never deal with the primary sources comprehensively, especially for the American side of the ocean. I still held on to the idea of mastering a large sample of the primary sources as a goal, even on the American side, however. It was for that reason that I put aside suggestions that the book would be better if it extended up to about 1800, particularly because this would allow me to cover much more about North America. Until I knew the primary documentation better, I did not feel confident that I could achieve the goals I originally set out. I was surprised to see that the book was widely adopted as a textbook rather than simply becoming a reference book for scholars as I had expected. Many colleagues who used the book for teaching, however, objected that its limited chronological focus did not give it full value as a vii viii Preface to the second edition text, especially in U.S. history courses. While generally accepting my contention that I did not feel I could master the extensive primary source material for the eighteenth century, they encouraged me to consider trying a chronological extension to enhance the value of the book as a teaching text. As I was considering these arguments, my research interests started to focus more on the eighteenth century, and as I felt more comfortable with this period, I decided that I could handle the demands of writing a new chapter that would cover that century. The result is this new edi tion. It adds a substantial new chapter on the eighteenth century to the otherwise unchanged 1992 edition, in hopes that it will make the book serve better as a general introduction to the role of Africans in the Atlan tic world through the main years of the Atlantic slave trade. Just as the final version of the 1992 edition fell short of my original goal of compre hensive use of primary sources, so the final chapter in this edition falls short of even the 1992 standards and relies much more on secondary materials for important parts of the argument, while still making use of some primary material where I have done additional research. I hope this compromise will enhance the book's value as a reference work and teaching tool.
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