African Merchants, Notables and the Slave Trade at Old Calabar, 1720: Evidence from the National Archives of Scotland

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Periodical article

Title:	African Merchants, Notables and the Slave Trade at Old Calabar, 1720: Evidence from the National Archives of Scotland
Authors:	Behrendt, Stephen D. Graham, Eric J.
Year:	2003
Periodical:	History in Africa
Volume:	30
Pages:	37-61
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Nigeria
Subjects:	Efik slave trade Old Calabar polity history traditional polities History and Exploration Labor and Employment Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Bibliography/Research
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/3172081
Abstract:	In late 1719 the brigantine 'Hannover' sailed from Port Glasgow (Scotland) on a slaving voyage to the Guinea coast. Shipowner Robert Bogle jr. and partners hired surgeon Alexander Horsburgh as supercargo to supervise their trade for provisions and slaves along the Windward Coast, Gold Coast and at Old Calabar (in present-day Nigeria). The surviving ship's accounts contain the first detailed list of African traders and notables in Old Calabar history. This paper examines Horsburgh's commercial transactions in the context of 17th and 18th-century Old Calabar history. It focuses on one group of Cross River traders, the Efik, who emerged as 'monopolistic middlemen' in the trade for European imports. Horsburgh's list of comey recipients in 1720 presents a snapshot of Calabar history at one point in time, helping to establish dates of Efik settlement, the timing of new lineage formations, and rates of economic, social and political change in Old Calabar. App., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]