Paper Abstract:
The Duala and Isubu of the Cameroon coast were highly involved in the Atlantic
slave trade and the slavery it engendered. To this end they signed many texts
with European slave merchants aimed at regulating the trade. Though these
‘legal texts’ focused more on external slave trade they indirectly influenced
internal slavery practices. While the European traders tried to protect their
interest in the texts, the coastal people also endeavored to guarantee their
monopoly as middlemen and control over their domestic slaves. When compelled to
give up the slave trade as seen in texts
to that effect, they demanded compensations. The findings of this paper are
that few texts had any considerations for the welfare of the enslaved
individuals be them those to be sold to the Europeans or those the local slavers
kept and who became a force that threatened their masters only after complete
abolition of the external slave trade in the area.
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