Encyclopedia of African American History

Bight of Benin  25

Bibliography

Gomez, Michael A. Exchanging Our Country Marks: Th e Trans-

formation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum

South. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998.

Lovejoy, Paul E. Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in

Africa. 2nd ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press,

2000.

Bight of Benin

Th e “Bight of Benin,” a term used by Europeans in the

Atlantic slave trade era, refers to the West African coastal

region between the Volta and Benin rivers and the body

of water within the open bay. East of the Volta River was

called the “Slave Coast” and constituted regions that faced

the Bight of Benin. Th is area includes present-day Togo,

Benin (formerly Dahomey), and western Nigeria. Th e Bight

of Benin region was a consistent supplier of slaves from the

17th through the early 19th centuries, and the site of two

powerful ancient African kingdoms—the forest state of Da-

homey and Benin.

Th e kingdom of Dahomey (present-day Benin), lo-

cated to the north of the rainforest region, was established

around 1625. One element of early Dahomean culture was

human sacrifi ce, practiced in annual rituals and ceremonies.

from the poor and sickly, and to ensure that the strong and
healthy would survive the transatlantic voyage. Although
men and women were separated and apprehended in diff er-
ent confi nements, captured individuals were not separated
according to ethnic origins or their place of extraction. All
were treated with the same harshness, regardless of their
place of origin, sex, or age.
Confi nement in a barracoon would last anywhere from
a couple of weeks to months. Time spent in a barracoon
was contingent on two factors: the slaver’s ability to accom-
modate additional and preferred slaves on their ships, and
the health of the enslaved—whether or not it was believed
that he or shoe would have survived the Middle Passage.
Barracoons also marked sites where captured Africans
were introduced to Christianity. Oft entimes, upon board-
ing the ships that would transport slaves to the New World,
slaves were baptized and branded with a cross or the trad-
ing company’s coat of arms. Th e baptismal, from the point
of view of the European slaver, represented a religious con-
version where the slave was expected to discard African
religions. In addition, the branding signifi ed a change in
the captured status from an individual to a commodity, or
property.
See also: Atlantic Slave Trade

Ashley C. Bowden

Slave barracoon in the Gallinas, on the coast of Africa, about 1 850. (Rischgitz/Getty Images)