Slaves for Peanuts: A Story of Conquest, Liberation, and a Crop That Changed History

Journalist Lewis, who is based in Senegal, debuts with an astute and distressing history of the links between slavery and peanut farming in 19th-century west Africa. According to Lewis, the rising demand for high-quality peanut oil for the European soap-making industry encouraged French colonial officials to ignore kidnapping and slave trading in the region, despite France’s abolition of slavery in 1848. Noting that most of the enslaved’s lives were poorly documented, Lewis relies heavily on the letters and records of Protestant missionary Walter Taylor. Originally from Sierra Leone, Taylor graduated from a French seminary and founded the Shelter for Runaway Slaves in Senegal, which helped fugitives obtain their “freedom papers.” His heartfelt letters detail the struggles of west Africans caught between local chiefs and European officials, their efforts to preserve their cultural traditions, and the machinations of Lewis’s mentor turned nemesis, François Villéger, whose racist attitudes undermined Taylor’s missionary work. Lewis’s skillful mining of Taylor’s records and her own immersion in Senegalese culture results in a fascinating exploration of regional loyalties and the intricacies of western African slavery. This informative and compassionate account unearths a little-known chapter in the history of slavery and European imperialism. (Apr.)