A
stunning work of popular history—the story of how a crop
transformed the history of slavery
“Lewis’s
work fuses powerful storytelling and authoritative historical
research, and she is adept at framing local events against a global
backdrop.” —the Whiting Award Committee on Slaves
for Peanuts
Winner,
James Beard Foundation Book Award for Reference, History, and
Scholarship
Americans
consume over 1.5 billion pounds of peanut products every year. But
few of us know the peanut’s tumultuous history, or its intimate
connection to slavery and freedom.
Lyrical
and powerful, Slaves
for Peanuts
deftly weaves together the natural and human history of a crop that
transformed the lives of millions. Author Jori Lewis reveals how
demand for peanut oil in Europe ensured that slavery in Africa would
persist well into the twentieth century, long after the European
powers had officially banned it in the territories they controlled.
Delving
deep into West African and European archives, Lewis recreates a world
on the coast of Africa that is breathtakingly real and unlike
anything modern readers have experienced. Slaves
for Peanuts
is told through the eyes of a set of richly detailed characters—from
an African-born French missionary harboring runaway slaves, to the
leader of a Wolof state navigating the politics of French
imperialism—who challenge our most basic assumptions of the motives
and people who supported human bondage.
At
a time when Americans are grappling with the enduring consequences of
slavery, here is a new and revealing chapter in its global history.