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
- 29 Introduction:
- 30 The Expulsion of Dalu ModuA Muslim Trader in Anti-Slavery Freetown
- 31 “Being a Slave, I Was Afraid...”
- 32 Interpreting Gold Coast Supreme Court Records, SCT 5/4/19 Regina (Queen) vs. Quamina Eddoo
- 33 A Tale of Slavery and Beyond in a British Colonial Court Record
- 34 Aballow’s Story
- 35 A Case of Kidnapping and Child Trafficking in Senegal, 1916
- Part Seven Recorded Encounters with the Enslaved: Christian Workers in Africa
- Part Eight Documents from Muslim Africa
- Part Nine Living with the Past
- Index
29 - Introduction:
Voices of Slaves in the Courtroom
from Part Six - Legal Records
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
- 29 Introduction:
- 30 The Expulsion of Dalu ModuA Muslim Trader in Anti-Slavery Freetown
- 31 “Being a Slave, I Was Afraid...”
- 32 Interpreting Gold Coast Supreme Court Records, SCT 5/4/19 Regina (Queen) vs. Quamina Eddoo
- 33 A Tale of Slavery and Beyond in a British Colonial Court Record
- 34 Aballow’s Story
- 35 A Case of Kidnapping and Child Trafficking in Senegal, 1916
- Part Seven Recorded Encounters with the Enslaved: Christian Workers in Africa
- Part Eight Documents from Muslim Africa
- Part Nine Living with the Past
- Index
Summary
Historians have increasingly found evidence from the courtroom to be very valuable, particularly in reconstructing social history. Two kinds of problems exist. The first is with the transcript. In many cases, there is only a list of decisions, though even such evidence can be valuable, as Richard Roberts has shown. The second problem is the nature of the court. Even where there was a court with the full apparatus of European judicial procedure, as in Lagos or the Gold Coast, the operation of the court was influenced by the strategies of opposed attorneys, the accused, and the different witnesses. The slave witness was usually in an unfamiliar court situation, where his or her interests were secondary to these strategies and where he or she was being pressed in Stickrodt's terms, "to say the 'right' thing".
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013