Slave Coast of West Africa

A 1729 map showing the Slave Coast
The Slave Coast is still marked on this c. 1914 map by John Bartholomew & Co. of Edinburgh.
Major slave trading regions of Africa, 15th–19th centuries

The Slave Coast is a historical name formerly used for that part of coastal West Africa along the Bight of Biafra and the Bight of Benin that is located between the Volta River and the Lagos Lagoon.[1][2] The name is derived from the region's history as a major source of African people sold into slavery during the Atlantic slave trade from the early 16th century to the late 19th century.[3][4]

Other nearby coastal regions historically known by their prime colonial export are the Gold Coast, the Ivory Coast (or Windward Coast), and the Pepper Coast (or Grain Coast).[5]

  1. ^ Law (1989), p. 46
  2. ^ "Change and Continuity in Coastal Bénin", West Africa During the Atlantic Slave Trade : Archaeological Perspectives, Bloomsbury Academic, 2001, doi:10.5040/9781474291064.ch-005, ISBN 978-1-4742-9104-0, retrieved 2020-08-31
  3. ^ "Freedom", The Atlantic World, Cambridge University Press, pp. 615–660, 2009-02-16, doi:10.1017/cbo9780511816604.018, ISBN 978-0-511-81660-4, retrieved 2020-08-31
  4. ^ "The history of the transatlantic slave trade". National Museums Liverpool. 10 July 2020. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  5. ^ Hall, Gwendolyn Midlo (2005-09-19), "Lower Guinea: Ivory Coast, Gold Coast, Slave Coast/Bight of Benin", Slavery and African Ethnicities in the Americas, University of North Carolina Press, pp. 101–125, doi:10.5149/9780807876862_hall.9, ISBN 978-0-8078-2973-8, retrieved 2020-08-31