Feudalism on the Loango Coast?
Louis de Grandpré’s 1801 Account of “Slavery” in Africa
In: Journal of Global SlaverySearch for other papers by Jutta Wimmler in
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Abstract
Louis de Grandpré’s book Voyage à la Côte Occidentale d’Afrique, published in 1801, is well-known to historians of Africa working on the eighteenth-century Loango Coast, located in the Cabinda province of Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In describing the laws and customs of the African societies in this region, de Grandpré invites the reader to imagine these societies as “feudal” in character and draws on the semantics of “slavery” in doing so. This article proposes that we need to place this text in the context in which it was written, namely the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. We also need to consider why the author published this book in the first place, in order to understand how the terms “slave” and “slavery” function in this text. The article argues that Louis de Grandpré used the feudal/slavery nexus consciously in order to provide a legitimizing framework for a possible French conquest, hoping to prove his own loyalty and usefulness to Napoleon.
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Feudalism on the Loango Coast?
Louis de Grandpré’s 1801 Account of “Slavery” in Africa
In: Journal of Global SlaverySearch for other papers by Jutta Wimmler in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
Louis de Grandpré’s book Voyage à la Côte Occidentale d’Afrique, published in 1801, is well-known to historians of Africa working on the eighteenth-century Loango Coast, located in the Cabinda province of Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In describing the laws and customs of the African societies in this region, de Grandpré invites the reader to imagine these societies as “feudal” in character and draws on the semantics of “slavery” in doing so. This article proposes that we need to place this text in the context in which it was written, namely the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. We also need to consider why the author published this book in the first place, in order to understand how the terms “slave” and “slavery” function in this text. The article argues that Louis de Grandpré used the feudal/slavery nexus consciously in order to provide a legitimizing framework for a possible French conquest, hoping to prove his own loyalty and usefulness to Napoleon.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 118 | 118 | 8 |
| Full Text Views | 20 | 20 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 148 | 148 | 25 |