Some Historical Account of Guinea, Its Situation, Produce, and the General...

Benezet, Anthony, 1713-1784Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.5

Word count: 256K words
Chapters: 26

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Some Historical Account of Guinea, Its Situation, Produce, and the GeneralAuthor: Benezet, Anthony, 1713-1784,Language: English, Class: HT: Social sciences: Communities, Classes, Races, Release Date: Mar 1, 2004

Editor's review

Written by the eighteenth-century abolitionist pioneer Anthony Benezet, this book is an important early English-language text that draws on firsthand materials to describe the geography, produce, and social conditions of Guinea (West Africa) and on that basis critiques the slave trade. Its value lies not in literary merit but in its significance for historical sources and intellectual history: readers can see how early abolitionists used information about commerce, produce, and population to argue that African societies were not "barbarous," thereby undermining the legitimacy of the slave trade. The narrative bears the limitations and religious-ethical coloring of its era and should be read in historical context. It is suitable as supplementary material for the history of the Atlantic world, colonial history, and the history of abolitionist thought, and may also be sampled by readers interested in early English political pamphlet writing. The free public-domain electronic edition facilitates searching and comparison, but note that its English spelling and syntax are in eighteenth-century style.

Who it's for

A good fit for

University faculty and students studying the history of the Atlantic slave trade and the history of early abolitionist thought
English majors who need original eighteenth-century English political pamphlets and travel accounts
History enthusiasts interested in pre-colonial West African geography and produce records

Not a good fit for

General readers seeking a systematic general history of Africa or a modern scholarly overview
Beginner readers impatient with eighteenth-century English style and religious polemics
Policy researchers who need contemporary data and statistical charts for support

Reading tips

Begin with the editor's note and book classification information to confirm the edition and language, then proceed to the main text
Read alongside a timeline of Atlantic history or the abolitionist movement, marking geographical and produce terminology as you go
Record the author's value judgments separately from factual descriptions to facilitate later critical discussion

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book suitable as an introductory reader for African history?

Not really. It is not a general history in the modern sense but a political tract by an eighteenth-century abolitionist focused on the Guinea region, in which fact and value judgment are intertwined and the limitations of the era are obvious. Beginners should first read a modern overview of African history, then use this book to appreciate the argumentative methods of early abolitionist discourse.

What language proficiency is needed to read this book?

The original is in eighteenth-century English, with syntax and spelling that differ from modern English, so solid English reading ability is required. Chinese readers can use annotations or read alongside related scholarship; if only searching for historical sources, focus on the chapters dealing with produce, trade, and population conditions.

Where does the main historical-source value of this book lie?

It shows how early abolitionists used information about geography, produce, and social customs to refute the "African barbarism" thesis, providing a primary text for studying the debate over the legitimacy of the slave trade. It also preserves the contemporary European cognitive framework regarding West Africa, making it suitable for comparison with later scholarship.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Benezet, Anthony, 1713-1784 Author · French-American · 1713–1784

Anthony Benezet (1713–1784) was a French-American Quaker teacher and abolitionist. He long concerned himself with the condition of the enslaved and of Native Americans, devoting himself to the education of Black and Indigenous people and joining teaching with the practice of his faith, a stance particularly notable in his time. His representative work, Some Historical Account of Guinea, Its Situation, Produce, and the General, takes the geography, produce, and related trade of the Guinea region as its thread, examining the origins and workings of the slave trade and expressing an abolitionist position through historical evidence rather than empty exhortation, in a plain style attentive to factual grounds. Only one of his works is held in this collection, and public information about his life and thought is limited; nonetheless, his writing and educational concern show an early abolitionist commitment, and his work offers a valuable reference for understanding eighteenth-century Atlantic criticism of the slave trade.