The second half of the nineteenth century was a turbulent period throughout the area I have studied, a period of violent struggle, of transformations never completed, of dramatic changes annulled because the whole area eventually fell under the control of the French. It was a period of increasing trade and production for market, of state-builders who tried to capitalize on the potential for change, and of increasing Islamization. Three themes intertwine themselves through the period: Islamic revolution, the increasing production of commodities, and new tools for making war. All were related to and often distorted by the region's tragic dependence on slave labor. All three of these themes were present earlier: to understand the history of slavery in the modern period, we must examine earlier transformations.