Archibald Dalzel

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Archibald Dalzel (1799)

Archibald Dalzel (born October 23, 1740 in Kirkilston , Scotland ; † 1811 or earlier), actually Dalziel , was a British slave trader , historian , adventurer and governor of the Gold Coast (now Ghana ).

He went to Africa as a surgeon in 1763 and returned to Great Britain in 1770. During this time he served four years as governor of Whydah (hwī'də) on the slave coast (now Ouidah , Benin ), the main port of the kingdom of Dahomey . He observed that the people of Whydah "pay a kind of veneration to a particular species of large snake, which is very gentle."

He was appointed Governor-in-Chief by the Committee of Merchants, which was in charge of the Gold Coast at that time : from March 31, 1792 to December 16, 1798 and from April 28, 1800 to September 30 1802.

History of Dahomey

In 1793 he published his history of Dahomey : The history of Dahomy , an inland kingdom of Africa ; comp. from authentic memoirs; with an introduction and notes , in which he argued that raiding villages in Dahomey for the sake of the slaves meant saving them from the even greater evil of human sacrifice.

At the time the work was published, he was governor of Cape Coast Castle . His official position gave him opportunities to obtain valuable and accurate information. Parts of the story are compiled from the memoirs of Robert Norris , who spent eighteen years in the African trade, and from communication with Lionel Abson , his successor as British governor in Whydah.

Works

  • The history of Dahomy, an inland Kingdom of Africa. London: Spilsbury, 1793
  • Archibald Dalzel: History of Dahomy, an Inland Kingdom in Africa . Collected from credible news, along with an introduction by Archibald Dalzel, former commander in Whydah, and now on the coastal promontory. Translated from English. Schwickert, Leipzig 1799 ( digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de [accessed October 1, 2018] Original title: History of Dahomy . London 1793.).

literature

  • Peter C. [Ed.] Hogg: The African slave trade and its suppression: a classified and annotated bibliography of books, pamphlets and periodical articles. London: Cass, 1973 (Cass library of African studies. General studies; 137)
  • Roy Richard Grinker, & Christopher B. Steiner (1997). Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation , pp. xvii-xxxi. Oxford, Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 1-55786-686-4 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Dalzel, Archibald
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dalziel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British slave trader, historian, adventurer and governor of the Gold Coast (now Ghana)
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1740
PLACE OF BIRTH Kirkilston , Scotland
DATE OF DEATH 1811