Most pre-twentieth-century European-language sources contain few, if any, voices of the enslaved. When they do, the stories contain an amazing amount of detail and can evoke tremendous empathy from the reader. Most often, however, their stories are told in the third person, making them fundamentally narratives “about” slaves rather than ones by the slaves themselves. The opportunity to read the story of a slave told by him- or herself is a rare occurrence indeed. The present chapter is concerned with one of these rare instances. It is a peculiar story. It took place on the western Gold Coast between late 1818 and early 1819. Kwadwo (spelled Cudjoe in the records) was a trader from Wassa, an important polity in the interior of the western Gold Coast. He was seized to serve as security for a debt contracted by one of his townsmen. His captor sold him in Axim, a trade port and the site of a Dutch fort, where he was purchased by an unnamed European slave-trader, apparently a Spaniard, who seemed to have operated in collusion with the Dutch commander at Axim. Their alleged intent: to force Kwadwo onto a ship so that he and a number of others could be transported illegally as slaves to America. Kwadwo, however, succeeded in escaping with two other companions. He then placed himself under British protection and appears to have regained his freedom. He later served as a witness against the Dutchman, a prominent officer on the Gold Coast, who was accused of engaging in the illegal sale of slaves. The officer was later removed from command. Most interesting is the fact that Kwadwo was no ordinary peasant. He was a retainer of a prominent titleholder who employed him as a “messenger.” In a word, he was a member, albeit a subordinate one, of the local political establishment. Moreover, he was himself a trader. This alone makes Kwadwo’s case very interesting. It was a time when most Europeans were forbidden from participating in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, but the related practice of Europeans owning slaves and controlling dependants (for instance, persons put in pawn for debts) was still legal and widely practiced. Kwadwo was not a passive, uninformed victim, however. He knew things and also knew how to deploy his knowledge in ways that served his own cause.
How Kwadwo regained his freedom and put the slave traders in big trouble
VALSECCHI, PIERLUIGI
2013-01-01
Abstract
Most pre-twentieth-century European-language sources contain few, if any, voices of the enslaved. When they do, the stories contain an amazing amount of detail and can evoke tremendous empathy from the reader. Most often, however, their stories are told in the third person, making them fundamentally narratives “about” slaves rather than ones by the slaves themselves. The opportunity to read the story of a slave told by him- or herself is a rare occurrence indeed. The present chapter is concerned with one of these rare instances. It is a peculiar story. It took place on the western Gold Coast between late 1818 and early 1819. Kwadwo (spelled Cudjoe in the records) was a trader from Wassa, an important polity in the interior of the western Gold Coast. He was seized to serve as security for a debt contracted by one of his townsmen. His captor sold him in Axim, a trade port and the site of a Dutch fort, where he was purchased by an unnamed European slave-trader, apparently a Spaniard, who seemed to have operated in collusion with the Dutch commander at Axim. Their alleged intent: to force Kwadwo onto a ship so that he and a number of others could be transported illegally as slaves to America. Kwadwo, however, succeeded in escaping with two other companions. He then placed himself under British protection and appears to have regained his freedom. He later served as a witness against the Dutchman, a prominent officer on the Gold Coast, who was accused of engaging in the illegal sale of slaves. The officer was later removed from command. Most interesting is the fact that Kwadwo was no ordinary peasant. He was a retainer of a prominent titleholder who employed him as a “messenger.” In a word, he was a member, albeit a subordinate one, of the local political establishment. Moreover, he was himself a trader. This alone makes Kwadwo’s case very interesting. It was a time when most Europeans were forbidden from participating in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, but the related practice of Europeans owning slaves and controlling dependants (for instance, persons put in pawn for debts) was still legal and widely practiced. Kwadwo was not a passive, uninformed victim, however. He knew things and also knew how to deploy his knowledge in ways that served his own cause.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
