For the period from 1772 to the abolition of the slave trade there is an exceptional abundance of documentation on the events on the western Slave Coast, which reflects its increasing importance in Afro-European trade. The region's rise in the trade had important repercussions for the communities there, shifting the power balance between the Ge king at Glidji and (African) traders in the coastal settlements in favour of the latter. This was the era of the traders, most importantly Lattie (d.1795), whose commercial success, new wealth and power was symbolised by the new, multi-storey houses that began to appear in the coastal settlement.

Little Popo, Anlo and the Danes, 1772 to 1792

In early 1772 the Danes established a lodge at Little Popo. This must have been very desirable for Little Popo, given the difficulties it faced in its struggle against Anlo at that time. As noted in the previous chapter, in 1772 these difficulties resulted in loss of control over Keta, which then allied with Anlo in its attack on Aflao. This was against the background of the Asante invasion of Akyem, Little Popo's ally on the Gold Coast against Akwamu, and Anlo's alliance with Akwamu. In the same year, Little Popo concluded a peace treaty with Dahomey, presumably in consequence of these difficulties on the western border. A European lodge meant supplies of firearms and gunpowder, access to credit and profits from trade which could be used towards war expenses. According to Biørn, reporting later in the century, the Danes also assisted Little Popo with money loans for their wars. Although he does not give particular dates and has a tendency to exaggerate, Danish support of Little Popo in this period seems likely enough. For the Danes, this was an opportunity to expand their influence in the region, especially as Little Popo was not in the position to be as assertive in negotiations with the Europeans as it had been at the time of Rømer's meeting with Ashampo in the 1740s.

In the seventeenth century, the western Slave Coast was transformed by two interrelated developments; first, the development of European trade on this section of the coast and, second, the immigration and settlement of Gold Coast people in the region.

In 1471, the Portuguese arrived on the Gold Coast, which they called Costa da Mina, and started trading for gold there. In the following year, they began charting the coast to the east of the Volta river. Initially, however, they showed little interest in exploring the commercial potential of the region that was to become the Slave Coast. Their focus was on the gold trade on the Costa da Mina and the commercial relations which they established elsewhere in West Africa were developed mainly in order to further this trade. Thus, slaves purchased in the kingdom of Benin (in today's Nigeria), where the Portuguese traded by the 1480s, were re-sold on the Costa da Mina in exchange for gold. Moreover, the forbidding conditions of the sea on the Slave Coast probably acted as a deterrent to any attempt to establish contacts with the people there. When they eventually did become interested in the Slave Coast, it was the outlets of the rivers and the lagoon into the sea which they explored. First they investigated the Lagos channel at the eastern end of the Slave Coast, which was evidently successful because through it they established contact with the kingdom of Ijebu. In 1530 their attention turned to the Volta on the western end of the Slave Coast, following reports that interlopers threatened the royal monopoly of the gold trade. This too was successful, and trade was established there soon afterwards, probably by 1536. The only other riverine outlet on the Slave Coast was the Bouche du Roi, which attracted the interest of the Portuguese in 1553, when a trade embargo with Benin prompted them to look elsewhere for alternative sources of slaves. However, the initial attempt to establish contact with the people on ‘the river which is called the Papoues’ was reported to have failed due to ‘the bad management of those who went there’.

The western Slave Coast can be regarded as a sub-region of the Slave Coast, the latter being conventionally defined as comprising the coastal area between the Volta river in the west and the Lagos channel in the east. The term ‘Slave Coast’ was being used by the seventeenth century. The Slave Coast was mainly defined externally, in terms of the European activities affecting it, as a source of enslaved Africans for shipment to the Americas. It has been argued, however, that there were also internal characteristics that justified its treatment as a unit. In terms of physical geography, two features stand out: the Benin (or Dahomey) Gap, a stretch of savannah (rather than tropical forest) which affected the microclimate, and a system of lagoons which extended along almost the whole of the coast, connecting the various places and serving as an integrating factor. Also, there was a degree of cultural and linguistic unity, as the Slave Coast was settled mainly by Gbe-speaking peoples who trace their origins to Tado, with the exception of the Yoruba in the extreme east and northeast.

The western Slave Coast was an integral part of the Slave Coast, sharing all the characteristics mentioned above. There were also however features that set it apart, justifying its treatment as a distinct entity. First, while the eastern part of the Slave Coast enjoyed easy communication with the far interior due to the relative openness of the country, putting it at the mercy of Oyo's invasions in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries but also enabling the establishment of trade connections that were crucial for regular and abundant supplies of enslaved Africans for the trade with Europeans, the importance of the hinterland of the western Slave Coast was limited by the Togo-Atacora mountain ranges, restricting communication and exchange with the far interior. Second (and perhaps linked with the first point), unlike the eastern Slave Coast, which from the 1720s was controlled by the kingdom of Dahomey, there was no single large state that dominated the western Slave Coast.

In the 1870s, two developments occurred which had profound consequences for the political and economic life on the western Slave Coast and would eventually lead to the partition of the region among three European colonial powers. These were, first, the incorporation of the Anlo region to the west into the British Gold Coast territory and, second, the establishment of increasing numbers of foreign traders on the western Slave Coast. These developments were interconnected, the latter being mainly a result of the former.

The incorporation of the Anlo region into the British Gold Coast territory in June 1874 was part of the extension and consolidation of British political power on the Gold and Slave Coasts, the beginnings of which can be traced back to the British anti-slave trade campaign. Aspects of this process were the bombardment of Lagos in 1851, the blockade of the ports and places on the Slave Coast in early 1852, the 1852 treaties for the abolition of the slave trade, the annexation of Lagos in 1861. In 1872, the British took over the Dutch settlements on the Gold Coast. A month after the incorporation of Anlo, the Crown Colony of the Gold Coast and Lagos was created by Royal Proclamation. Between July 1876 and May 1877, the British also blockaded the coast from Porto Seguro to Porto Novo, in order to force the king of Dahomey to pay a fine.

The incorporation of Anlo into the British Gold Coast territory meant that a stiff duty was now imposed on spirits and other goods imported into the region. This prompted many of the traders who were established at Keta to move further east out of the British territory, which extended to Adafia, or at least to establish branches there. Some of these traders, French, German and Sierra Leonean, moved to Little Popo. The first German, or, more correctly, Hanseatic, firm, Friedrich M. Vietor Söhne from Bremen, established itself there in this period.

In 1807 Great Britain abolished its slave trade, making it illegal for British subjects to engage in the slave trade from 1 May 1807. From then on, there followed a number of acts and treaties with other countries which progressively restricted the slave trade. At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the European nations stated their desire for the universal abolition of the trade while reserving their right to do so in their own time. In the same year, Portugal agreed to abolish the slave trade north of the equator. In order to enforce the abolition of the trade, British men of war patrolled the West African coast, among others, capturing suspicious vessels. From the 1840s they were joined, theoretically at least, by French, American and Portuguese cruisers. Captured vessels were sent for adjudication to the court of mixed commission at Sierra Leone and, after 1842, also to other places such as Luanda.

Initially, however, these developments did not have great consequences for trade on the western Slave Coast, which continued to export slaves as well as ivory and provisions. If anything, the region's trade was boosted because, in order to avoid the surveillance of the British cruisers, slaves were sent from the established ports on the Gold Coast to the western Slave Coast to be shipped from there. This was noted by a British trader in 1830: ‘At Accra there is a great deal [of slaving]; the slaves are sent down, perhaps as far as [Little] Popoe, by small canoes…’ Another trader, who had been active on the coast between 1818 and the late 1830s, reported that ‘There has been no slaving on the Gold Coast till you come down to [Little] Popo and Whydah’, although in the late 1830s ‘there was very little [slave trade]’. According to him, Little Popo's main trade was in ivory and dollars.

The period between 1702 and 1772 was defined by the intrusions of Akwamu and Dahomey into the Slave Coast, resulting in the dislocation of communities and the spread of warfare and banditry in the region. Little Popo played an active role in this warfare, consolidating its position in the region vis-à-vis its rivals Anlo and Dahomey. This was the era of the warrior kings, epitomized by Ashampo (c.1737–1767) who was a very successful warrior. However, the relationship between Ashampo and the European traders was often problematic, illustrating the complex relationship between warfare and the Atlantic slave trade.

Akwamu power east of the Volta

1702 marks the beginning of major involvement by Akwamu in the politics of the western Slave Coast. As discussed above, in 1700 Little Popo had used the opportunity of Akyem attacks against Akwamu to drive the Adangme out of Keta. However, in the same year the Akwamu ruler, Ado, succeeded in appeasing Akyem with a handsome payment and soon afterwards his attention returned to the region east of the Volta river. According to Wilks, this was part of Ado's imperialistic projects of territorial expansion to the east. In mid-February 1702 he launched a major military campaign, in the course of which Akwamu control was re-established in the Keta area and, in mid-April, Little Popo was overrun. The king of Little Popo, his subjects and the Adangme fled to Allada. The Akwamu forces then continued to Hueda, with whom they were believed ‘to have common cause.’ They remained there until a threat from Denkyira against their homeland prompted their return west of the Volta at the end of June. However, it appears that Akwamu stationed or soon afterwards sent an occupying force east of the river. In April 1705 it was reported that an army of ‘already 8 to 9,000 men’ under a commander named Dondo was established near Keta.

In 1553 Portuguese traders arrived at the mouth of the Mono river (in today's Republic of Bénin) and initiated commercial relations with the resident Hula people. As fishermen and salt-makers, the Hula had experience of inter-regional trade and had developed structures to support it, but the arrival of the Europeans signified something radically new for them. The Atlantic Ocean, which until then had been a barrier, now became a gateway, bringing the Hula into contact with other communities and cultures located on the edges of the various continents bounding the Atlantic. This contact was mainly commercial and economic, but also entailed social, cultural and political transformations, including, by the end of the period examined in this study, the colonial takeover by the French.

Although intensifying over time, this was no linear process; nor was its outcome predetermined. It involved changing trading partners, arrangements and networks as well as stops and starts and reversals, as in the latter half of the eighteenth century, when the Hula virtually dropped out of the Afro-European trade. However, even if they decided to step back from the trade or were pushed out of it by competitors, the world around them was transformed, directly or indirectly, by its influence. The ensuing changes included the arrival of new neighbours (Akan- and Ga-Adangme-speaking immigrants from the Gold Coast to the west, and, to the east, Fon from the interior), new technologies (such as firearms and sea-going canoes), and new plants, animals, diseases, currency and commodities from Asia, Europe and the Americas, to mention only a few. Less visible to historians but no less important were changes in outlook, values and taste, social organisation and religious practice.

This book is a study of the Afro-European commercial encounter on the western Slave Coast from its beginnings around 1550 to the colonial partition in the 1880s, particularly the slave trade but also that in ivory and agricultural produce.

The next two chapters both deal with the nineteenth century. This one discusses political developments and lays the groundwork for the discussion of commercial developments, which follows in Chapter 6.

The civil war of 1823 and the foundation of Agoué

The political disunity at Little Popo observed by European visitors in the late eighteenth century became more pronounced in the early nineteenth century. In the 1820s a civil war flared up at Little Popo, as a result of which Agoué was founded.

The main obstacle to the reconstruction of the history of this war is the scarcity of contemporary documentation. Earlier historians have relied mainly on retrospective accounts from local oral traditions, which exist in abundance. These accounts, which were recorded in writing in the early twentieth century, vary in detail and the point of view from which they are told. In essence, however, they tell the story that was first published by Pierre Bouche:

Bouche's account appeared in 1885 but goes back to information gathered at Agoué in 1874/5. He does not give his sources, but probably received his information from people at Agoué, that is the descendants of the defeated party, some fifty years after the event.

On the basis of contemporary newspaper accounts, in the RGCG, however, Bouche's story is wrong in several points, most importantly regarding the date of the civil war and the identity of George Lawson's adversary. According to contemporary reporting, the war occurred in 1823 rather than 1821. Further, George Lawson's adversary is named as ‘Ansan’, the ‘caboceer of Dutch town’ at Little Popo, rather than Komlagan who according to Bouche was the ‘chief of Little Popo’.