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
- 36 Introduction:
- 37 Experiencing Fear and Despair
- 38 The Testimony of Lamine FilalouA Young Man’s Experience of Enslavement and His Struggle for Freedom in French West Africa
- 39 The Blood Men of Old Calabar – a Slave Revolt of the Nineteenth Century?
- 40 Makua Life HistoriesTestimonies on Slavery and the Slave Trade in Nineteenth-Century Madagascar
- Part Eight Documents from Muslim Africa
- Part Nine Living with the Past
- Index
39 - The Blood Men of Old Calabar – a Slave Revolt of the Nineteenth Century?
from Part Seven - Recorded Encounters with the Enslaved: Christian Workers in 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
- 36 Introduction:
- 37 Experiencing Fear and Despair
- 38 The Testimony of Lamine FilalouA Young Man’s Experience of Enslavement and His Struggle for Freedom in French West Africa
- 39 The Blood Men of Old Calabar – a Slave Revolt of the Nineteenth Century?
- 40 Makua Life HistoriesTestimonies on Slavery and the Slave Trade in Nineteenth-Century Madagascar
- Part Eight Documents from Muslim Africa
- Part Nine Living with the Past
- Index
Summary
Literature on the history of Old Calabar describes the Blood Men as slaves who organized a revolt against their Efik masters that first occurred at the mid-nineteenth century. This chapter presents two passages from missionary texts, which offer intimate insights into the social life of Old Calabar. The first account is from the diary of Hugh Goldie. The second is from an entry in missionary Anderson's diary and a letter of missionary Goldie. A careful reading of their two accounts reveals that slaves operated in support of their deceased master's family when they felt it was necessary to find those responsible for his death, and that local politics played an important role as well. According to the missionaries, the Blood Men were not only fighting against being sacrificed but also to escape the oppression of the Ekpe association, which the Efik to this day consider their traditional form of government.
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- African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade , pp. 445 - 465Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013