Work

Africans Championed Free Trade: Violence, Sovereignty, and Competition in the Era of Atlantic Slave Trade

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This article examines the central role of West Central Africa in the development of a global capitalist economy during the eighteenth century. Using a rich and overlooked set of records in English, Portuguese, and French, the article explains that rulers and brokers on the Loango coast championed ideas and practices of free trade and free markets from the rise of the Atlantic slave trade through at least until the end of the eighteenth century. The article shows that European slave traders opposed a free market by fiercely competing to obtain full control of the trade in African captives along the Atlantic Africa. In contrast, the West Central African states of Ngoyo, Kakongo, and Loango, located north of the Congo River, fully embraced free trade and free markets during the era of the Atlantic slave trade.

Source: The Journal of African History

DOI: 10.1017/s0021853725000131

Author: Ana Lucia Araujo

Institution: Howard University

Language: English

Topic: Colonialism, slavery, and trade

Subfield: Anthropology

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,550

Funders: King's College London, Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, King's College London, University of London