Slaving states : from West Africa to the ancient Mediterranean / Elizabeth Fentress, Adam Rabinowitz.
| Author/creator | Fentress, Elizabeth author. |
| Other author | Rabinowitz, Adam, 1973- author. |
| Format | Book |
| Publication | Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2026. |
| Description | xvii, 395 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 24 cm |
| Subjects |
| Physical medium | illustration |
| Physical medium | monochrome |
| Contents | 1. Large-Scale Demand for Enslaved Labor in Classical Antiquity -- Slavery before Classical Antiquity -- Intensification -- Turnover of Enslaved Labor -- Visibility and Origins of the Enslaved -- Conclusions -- 2. The Model: Slaving West Africa -- Trade through the Desert: The Tuareg and the Niger Bend -- The Slave Coast and Its Slaving States: Dahomey -- The Model -- 3. Tribal Slaving in Gaul -- Settlement Patterns in Pre-Roman Gaul -- Wine for the Gauls -- Toward the State -- Gaulish Polities as Slaving States -- 4. Scythian Slaving: A View from the Steppe -- Was Phaulles the Exception or the Rule? -- The Scythians in Historical Sources -- Mounds, Mounts, and Manliness: The Archaeological Record for Scythian Society -- Cities of the Steppe -- The Scythians as a Slaving State -- 5. The Garamantes of Fezzan: Slaving on Chariots -- The Archaeology of the Garamantes -- Iconographic Evidence for African Slaves -- The Romans and the Garamantes -- The Slaving State and Its Development -- Settlement Patterns -- The Structure of the State -- The Garamantes as a Slaving State -- Conclusion -- Commonalities -- The Formation of Slaving States. |
| Abstract | A pathbreaking new perspective on the ways ancient societies were shaped and transformed by slave trading The growing economies of ancient Greece and Rome created an ever-increasing demand for enslaved labor, which was supplied by states on the peripheries of their empires. In Slaving States, archaeologists Elizabeth Fentress and Adam Rabinowitz examine how violent bands of warriors in the outlying regions of Gaul, Scythia, and the Fezzan (part of modern-day Libya) gradually became states that specialized in selling humans to the slave economies of Greece and Rome. They trace a series of transformations-of people into objects that could be bought and sold, of warrior bands into state-level societies, and of opportunistic captive-taking into slaving economies. Fentress and Rabinowitz use as a model the West African state of Dahomey, whose development into a slaving state between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries is, unlike that of their ancient counterparts, well documented. Drawing on textual and archaeological evidence, they show that the slaving zones of early modern West Africa and of antiquity have much in common, rooted in the structure of slaving itself. The evolution of the ancient warriors of Gaul, Scythia, and the Fezzan from head-takers to slave merchants may have taken different paths, but it is clearly written in their histories. With Slaving States, Fentress and Rabinowitz offer an entirely new perspective on ancient slavery. By exploring the supply side of the market for enslaved people, they show that that slavery transforms the society that supplies enslaved people as much as it transforms the society that uses them. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Issued in other form | ebook version : 9780691288055 |
| ISBN | 9780691288062 hardback |
| ISBN | 0691288062 |
| ISBN | PDF ebook |
| Standard identifier# | CIPO000401387 |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joyner | New Books | HT979 .F46 2026 | ✔ Available | Want This? |