Was watching Henry Louis Gates Jr on his show about genealogy with Guestlove who is a musician for one of the late night comedians. Turns out the Guestlove’s ancestor came over on the very last known slave ship and they traced him back to the Kingdom of Dahomey in Africa. Said his ancestor was one of 120 slaves sold to a slave trader by the leader of Dahomey.
Never heard of it so looked it up. It was just one of several black African empires that became very wealthy selling slaves to European slave traders. After slavery was banned in the New World Dahomey switched to selling palm oil but it was not as profitable and the kingdom collapsed a few decades later.
Never heard of it so looked it up. It was just one of several black African empires that became very wealthy selling slaves to European slave traders. After slavery was banned in the New World Dahomey switched to selling palm oil but it was not as profitable and the kingdom collapsed a few decades later.
Dahomey | Kingdom, History, Location, & Facts
Dahomey, kingdom in western Africa that flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries in the region that is now southern Benin. According to tradition, at the beginning of the 17th century three brothers vied for the kingdom of Allada, which, like neighbouring Whydah (now Ouidah), had grown rich on...
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