Book contents
- African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade
- African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Foreword Beyond the Printed Word
- Introduction Finding the African Voice
- Part One Remembering Slavery and the Slave Trade
- Part Two The Verbal Arts and Everyday Objects
- Part Three Documenting Our Own Histories and Cultural Practices
- Part Four Slavery Observed: European Travelers’ Accounts
- Part Five Administrative Records
- Part Six Legal Records
- Part Seven Recorded Encounters with the Enslaved: Christian Workers in Africa
- Part Eight Documents from Muslim Africa
- 41 Introduction:
- 42 The Arabic Letters of Ghadames Slaves in the Niger Bend, 1860–1900
- 43 The “Hidden Transcripts” and Legal Rights of Slaves in the Muslim World
- 44 Slave Wills along the Swahili Coast
- Part Nine Living with the Past
- Index
42 - The Arabic Letters of Ghadames Slaves in the Niger Bend, 1860–1900
from Part Eight - Documents from Muslim Africa
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2013
Book contents
- African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade
- African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Foreword Beyond the Printed Word
- Introduction Finding the African Voice
- Part One Remembering Slavery and the Slave Trade
- Part Two The Verbal Arts and Everyday Objects
- Part Three Documenting Our Own Histories and Cultural Practices
- Part Four Slavery Observed: European Travelers’ Accounts
- Part Five Administrative Records
- Part Six Legal Records
- Part Seven Recorded Encounters with the Enslaved: Christian Workers in Africa
- Part Eight Documents from Muslim Africa
- 41 Introduction:
- 42 The Arabic Letters of Ghadames Slaves in the Niger Bend, 1860–1900
- 43 The “Hidden Transcripts” and Legal Rights of Slaves in the Muslim World
- 44 Slave Wills along the Swahili Coast
- Part Nine Living with the Past
- Index
Summary
This chapter presents a list of ten Arabic letters that were either written by slaves, or addressed to slaves, in their role as commercial agents in the Niger Bend region of West Africa during the second half of the nineteenth century. One of them is a correspondence centered around two literate Muslim slaves who belonged to the same master, and who referred to themselves as brothers. The letters open a window on relatively autonomous and high-status slaves living in the circum-Saharan world of the nineteenth century. Sources of this kind allow us to add new stories to the history of slavery in Africa. Only some of the letters are dated. The first and second letters are written by Ṣanbu ʿĪsā to his master ʿĪsā b. Ḥmīda. The third letter is written by Anjay ʿĪsā to ʿĪsā b. Ḥmīda.
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- Information
- African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade , pp. 485 - 502Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013