The Gift is heir to the new historiographical methodologies that, initially inspired by archaeology, have opened historians’ eyes to the history of objects, through which the history of humans can be reconstructed. Ana Lucia Araujo reveals the history of La Rochelle, in France, and the kingdoms of Loango and Dahomey, in West Central and Northwest Africa, respectively, through a silver sword and its movements between these three interconnected spaces throughout the eighteenth century and also the men and women of these spaces who had their lives intertwined and shaped by the Atlantic slave trade. The Portuguese, English, and Brazilians also come into play, competing with the French commercial agents of La Rochelle's major trading houses to monopolize the slave trade in the two African markets. Additionally, Americans from the French colonies acted as either local commercial agents or consumers of the slaves, primarily for the sugar plantations.
The sword tracked...
