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Martin Kleins eagerly awaited book is a history of slaves during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in three former French colonies. It investigates the changing nature of local slavery over time, and the evolving French attitudes towards it, through the phases of trade, conquest and colonial rule. The heart of the study focuses on the period between 1876 and 1922, when a French army composed largely of slave soldiers took massive numbers of slaves in the interior, while in areas near the coast, hesitant actions were taken against slave-raiding, trading and use. After 1900, the French withdrew state support of slavery, and as many as a million slaves left their masters. A second exodus occurred after World War I, when soldiers of slave origin returned home. The renegotiation of relationships between those who remained and their masters carries the story into the contemporary world.
List of contents
1. Slavery in the Western Sudan; 2. Abolition and retreat: Senegal, 1848-1876; 3. Slavery, slave-trading and social revolution; 4. Senegal after Brière; 5. Conquest of the Sudan: Desbordes to Archinard; 6. Senegal in the 1890s; 7. The end of the conquest; 8. The imposition of metropolitan priorities on slavery; 9. With smoke and mirrors: slavery and the conquest of Guinea; 10. The Banamba exodus; 11. French fears and the limits to an emancipation policy; 12. Looking for the tracks: how they did it; 13. After the war: renegotiating social relations; 14. A question of honour.
About the author
Martin Klein is a lifelong student of the Scriptures (2 Timothy 2:15), son of God (1 John 3:1), and servant of Jesus Christ (Galatians 1:10). By age nine, he had memorized the book of Revelation (2 Timothy 3:15). His love for Scripture is the primary motivation for this present work (Psalms 119:103-105). His desire is for the reader to experience the peace and forgiveness found nowhere else than in Jesus Christ (John 14:27). Martin and his wife, Janelle, help patients use Scriptural and scientific principles to recover health (3 John 1:2) at a health retreat and clinic in northeastern Washington State.
Summary
Martin Klein's history of slavery during the 19th and 20th centuries in three former French colonies focuses on the constantly changing relationships between slave and master, and the attempts on the part of slaves to seek freedom, or autonomy where they remained in servitude.
