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University of Toronto From: "Martin Klein" <martin.klein@utoronto.ca> Dear Kwabena, You will have to forgive me if I address through H-Africa. Your response to Eric Foner's op-ed piece in the NY Times is curious because you approve of what he is saying, and yet you quibble about terms. Terms often do have meaning, but you know that Eric Foner is the last person who would argue "that Africans were the only instrumental architects of the trade." HE does not say this in the op-ed piece you cited. The terms "African slave trade" and "African trade" say the same things, first, that there was a trade in slaves from Africa and second, that this was a trade in Africans. Surely, you can fault neither formulation, and in fact, the existence of that trade is fundamental to arguments you have made elsewhere. No scholar working on the slave trade would argue that Africans were the "only instrumental architects" and few would argue that they were the principal architects. You know that Africans traded in an used slaves, having written perceptively on the subject, but no one would argue that African capitalists were sending boats to Europe to buy slaves, that any of those boats had African officers, or that Africans were significant in creating the market for slaves in outside Africa. Your second point is an interesting one. You and I have both written about opponents of slavery in Africa, as has Boubacar Barry and Ismail Barry. The existence of African opponents of slavery is important in understanding some African societies, but until you prove otherwise, we would have to say, that though many African communities freed slaves and some chose not to participate in the enslavement of other Africans, the evidence for what could be called an abolition movement is thin. I would be delighted if you could prove otherwise. Martin Klein
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