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An Unnoticed Aspect of Archibald Dalzel's the History of Dahomey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Loren K. Waldman
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Extract

The History of Dahomey, written by Archibald Dalzel in 1793, has been used extensively as a source for Dahomean history. This article shows that the book is a polemic written in order to counter the charges of the British anti-slave trade movement and to prevent any further Parliamentary action being taken against the trade.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , July 1965 , pp. 185 - 192
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1965

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References

1 DaIzel, Archibald, The History of Dahomey, an Inland Kingdom of Africa; compiled from Authentic Memoirs; with an Introduction and Notes (London, 1793).Google Scholar

2 Donnan, Elizabeth, Documents Illustrative of the History of the Slave Trade to America (Washington, D.C., 1931), 11, 596n.Google Scholar

3 Dunglas, ‘Contribution’, xix, 68.

4 Ibid., 147.

5 According to Dunglas, ibid., 167, both DaIzel and Norris called Tegbessu (who reigned from 1732 to 1774), by the name Bossa Ahadee. The latter name is no longer remembered in Abomey.

6 Dalzel, The History, Preface, vi.

7 Cobbett, William, The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803 (London, 1816), xxviii, 46.Google Scholar

8 Cox, E. G., A Reference Guide to the Literature of Travel (Seattle, 1935), I, 374–5.Google Scholar

9 Abson furnished the biographies of Adahoonzou and Wheenoohew, two eighteenthcentury Dahomean monarchs. According to Dunglas, ‘Contributions’, xx, 5, and 27, respectively, Dalzel gave the name Adahoonzou to Kpengla and Wheenoohew to Agonglo.

10 Walckenaer, C. A., chap. IV, ‘Histoire du Dahomey’, par Dalzel, Histoire Générale des Voyages, ou Nouvelle Collection des Relations de Voyages par Mer et par Terre (Paris, 1827), xi, 235–9.Google Scholar

11 Cornevin, Histoire, 103.

12 Walckenaer, Histoire, xi, 235.

13 Dalzel, The History, Preface, v.

14 Ibid., iii.

15 Donnan, Documents, II, 575n. I.

16 Idem.

17 Part of the testimony is reproduced in Donnan, Documents, II, 596, while another part of the testimony is summarized in a footnote on that same page.

18 Sir Picton, James, City of Liverpool: Municipal Archives and Records, from A.D. 1700 to the Passing of the Municipal Reform Act (Liverpool, 1886), 215–16,Google Scholar quoted Donnan, op. cit., II, 577–8. (Italics mine.)

19 Donnan, Documents, II, 579n.

20 Ibid., 586 n.

21 The Parliamentary History, xxviii, 55.

22 The Debate on a Motion for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, in the House of Commons, on Monday and Tuesday, April 18, and 19, 1791 (London, 1791), 5.

23 The Committee herein referred to was the Committee on Trade and Plantations, and the Evidence referred to included that of Dalzel.

24 Donnan, Documents, II, 597 n. 4.

25 Walckenaer, Histoire, xi, 207.

26 Dalzel, The History, 27.

27 Dalzel, The History, Preface, xxiv–v. (Italics mine.)

28 Ibid., 216–17.

29 Ibid., 218.

30 Ibid., 217–21.

31 Ibid., 221.

32 Cobbett, The Parliamentary History, xxviii, 90–1.