Slaves for Peanuts" by Jori Lewis is a powerful memoir that chronicles the author's experience of living and working in rural Ghana. Through her vivid descriptions and engaging storytelling, Lewis takes readers on a journey of self-discovery and personal growth.

What sets this book apart is the author's ability to convey the nuances and complexities of Ghanaian culture. Through her interactions with locals, Lewis provides insights into the daily lives, beliefs, and traditions of the people she encounters. She also addresses the challenges that come with being a foreigner in a new and unfamiliar place, highlighting the difficulties of communication, cultural differences, and navigating the expectations of others.

Overall, "Slaves for Peanuts" is a thought-provoking and powerful memoir that offers a glimpse into the complexities of cross-cultural exchange. The author's willingness to share her vulnerabilities and struggles is both courageous and inspiring. This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in travel, culture, and personal growth.

Such a great read, living in Senegal I was able to learn so much from this book that I did not know about the history and importance of the peanut. I enjoyed the way storytelling was weaved into factual elements and this was an interesting read. I had the opportunity to meet the author early this year and was fascinated by the time and research that went into writing this book.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

It took me a while to work my way through this one. It's a long book, but I found it super fascinating, disturbing, and heartbreaking. I honestly knew very little about slavery, French Colonization, and the history of West Africa. I thought it was brilliant that way this author shaped the history around the backdrop of the "peanut". Well researched. Well written. If you are a history buff (like me) this is definitely worth a read.

**ARC Via NetGalley**

Slaves for Peanuts takes readers to 19th century Senegal, a period when the French were meddling heavily in West Africa as supposedly benevolent civilizers and other forms of imperialist bullshit. The book follows the work of a Black, French Protestant Reverend from Sierra Leone who evangelized in Saint Louis, a port under French control. Rev. Walter Taylor not only worked tirelessly towards converting pagans of many types but also took on great works of compassion in protecting and sponsoring runaway slaves to help them gain freedom. At the time, slavery was officially outlawed on French soil (which included colonized areas), but it was inconsistently enforced and manumission was made difficult to obtain through a 90-day waiting period, during which enslaved people seeking freedom might be recaptured. The book explains the regional politics surrounding how slavery was permitted to continue by French authorities as well as Taylor's work to assist runaways and set them up for success in a French colonial system. The book also covers, as the title suggests, the economic factors that resulted in a boom in peanut production in West Africa and the consequences of the rush to produce increasing amounts for export.

This is an informative read, and I appreciate how the author identifies where evidence is available and where there are only educated guesses to be had. She comments on the types of sources and the voices that have been silenced in the historical record. I learned a lot about regional history, and it was a good opportunity to examine the impact of colonization on a local, focused scale.

The only thing that dampened my experience was the heavy focus on missionary work. To be clear, the author is thoughtful in her discussion of how missionaries furthered colonization attempts and ponders how Rev. Taylor's position as a Black African evangelist creates an interesting intersection and possible internal conflict. So there is nothing in the message or reflection that I found problematic. However, as someone who is generally wary of religious institutions, I was caught unawares by the degree of attention it receives in the narrative. So be on the lookout if that's a pro/con for you as an area of study. I will say that though it's not my favorite topic, this presents an interesting case, and the volume of sources in Taylor's own writing is beneficial and meaningful to the discussion. Thanks to New Press for my copy to read and review!

Read 4.21 - 5.5.2022
Kindle
Nonfiction
DNF @50%
*NO RATING*

I tried. I really tried. I so wanted to love this book, but wow. I started this book on 4.21 and stopped today [5.5] and only got to 50%. I am not uneducated; I have an average or a little above I.Q. and this book often felt W A Y above my pay-grade. The author loves a big word and I spent much of the 50% read looking up words I have never heard of and will never, ever use in my daily life. E V E R. And that isn't even going in to how much French is used [with no translations] that one has to look up [I have an extremely basic knowledge of some of the language; thankfully I have both a translator on my phone for when my Kindle couldn't handle the translation].

I felt that the title was a little misleading; there were slaves [and that was the part of the story that was intriguing and some of the incidents just broke my heart AND blew my mind] and there were peanuts, but not very much in regards to the history of the former and I was still waiting to see how they really played into this book. There WAS a lot of religion, politics and people who show up briefly and then never again [which is just confusing]. It ends up being a hot mess; chaotic and confusing and disjointed and I finally just had to give up. I was dreading having to read it every day and to be honest, I remember little of what I did read - a sign that I was just not into this book.

I am really disappointed; I was hoping for so much more [and from the reviews, kept thinking this book would get better - apparently they were the correct pay-grade to read and love this book] and it just wasn't for me. I feel like I gave so much time for no return at all.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author and publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I requested this book from NetGalley's history section thinking it would be American history. I was completely wrong--which is totally fine. Instead, this is a fascinating look at West African (Senegal/Mali/French West Africa) history in the late 19th century. Yes, it is about peanut agriculture and the demand for peanuts from industrialized Europe--where they were used for their oil. The demand for peanuts caused farmers to grow more peanuts and need more land and more laborers--and thus more slaves. Slavery was no longer legal in French-controlled lands, and that conflict is a huge part of this story.

This book is a lot more though, and honestly my least favorite thing about it is the title. This book is about French colonization in what is now Senegal, but was then French West Africa and included many traditional states--including Kajoor/Cayor, which is discussed at length here. It is also about French Protestant missionaries and their African counterparts, especially Walter Taylor from what is now Sierra Leone. It is about the conflict between anti-slavery French laws that the missionaries wanted enforced, and the French government agents who were more interested in keeping the damels and farmers happy. It is about a railroad and yellow fever. Lewis also includes a bit at the very end, as she successfully locates an elder who points her to the town of freedmen that Taylor had established and his church supported for some time. This was only 130 or so years ago--well within the time period an elder would know. I hope she noted the location in her own research.

I went into this book knowing very little about the history of Senegal and surrounding areas. I spent a lot of time on google maps and Wikipedia reading additional background information, which made it a slow read but also made the book more interesting for me. And it was great--well written, readable, excellent citations that seem well rounded. She used missionary society archives as well as French, Senegal, Gambia, and Sierra Leone national archives. There are doctoral theses, geography journals,
history journals, and many books cited in the notes (but there were no endnote numbers in my galley! huge pet peeve!).

The one thing this book truly needs is a good map. I read a galley (on a black and white kindle) that had a couple of mediocre maps, but I really hope the final print version has a good map or three.

4.5/5.0

This book is well-written based on a great amount of research. This book reveals a period of less-known history of trans-Atlantic trade, and all of this can be traced back to a common corps- peanuts which is a great source of oil for Europeans at that time. Jori Lewis uses extensive historical events to illustrate the history of the peanut and its close relationship between peanuts and lasting slave trade.

I really enjoy the reading journey and highly recommend this to readers that are into the history, particularly in transatlantic slave trade.

5 stars

I am grateful to The New Books for sending me an advanced copy of this book for review.

I'm so happy that I requested this ARC because I didn’t realize that there was this entire area of interesting history that I was completely ignorant about. I enjoyed this well researched look at how slavery across West Africa that was tied to the cultivation of peanuts, really shaped the progression of these peoples during the times of colonialism and early post-colonial years. It was interesting to see exactly how the attitudes in Europe and the political structures that existed in colonial West Africa were responsible for the systematic exploitation of so many people. I love how we were presented with a cross section of society during those colonial times, and we could see how each moving part worked and how certain people were instrumental in the maintenance of slavery and the slave trade in Western Africa. Capitalism undermined any effort towards social and economic growth of these regions.

There are certain similarities that you will find in every colonial history; colonizing countries stripping resources from their colonies and upholding institutions that allow this capitalism to thrive. I like how this book offered a chronological look at the development of the peanut industry and trade and showed how the necessary infrastructure and the development of this peanut economy directly resulted in so much long-term damage that was intentional. The author cited many resources for further reading that are compiled in the indices of this book, allowing anyone interested to further their knowledge about the details of this historical time and place.

I think this was a great piece of nonfiction history and I would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the history of West Africa, in global economies, and in the intricacies of colonialism in Africa.

Slavery was sadly so fundamental to many industries and economies that it’s truth has been swept aside in many histories. This book thoroughly and respectfully insists that we acknowledge its reality and how the suffering of so many shaped the industry and society which have influenced our modern experience. Well researched and well written, the book focuses on facts and sources to paint a clear picture which cannot be ignored.

Bravo! This book melted my heart. All I can say is wow, and this author did an amazing job. It was immediately apparent that the author did a substantial amount of research on time period and subject matter. Its pretty cool to know Where peanuts ornigally came from and how they got here. "Botanist and scholars did not know where the peanut came from because by the time anyone started paying attention it was turning up in almost every remote corner of the known world". A few parts of this book that so broke my heart is when St. Louis was suppose to be a free state but for most it wasn't. You had to wait a while before you could do what you needed to become free. The way these poor souls got treated made me tremble.. I was afraid for them.. On top of that, People were dying left and right until 1758 when they finally started using soap. Because people didn't use it before that time , it brought so much illness to the communities. I also love that this book has maps and pictures. It just brings the book to life. I honestly believe there is so much rich history that everyone needs to read this book. Not everyone knows about how deeply affected these people were. This was a very trying time. Thank you for allowing me to read this book and please keep more books coming!

Until now, I was completely unaware that the humble peanut’s spread and popularity to Western Africa led to it being tightly tied up with slavery in the region. So to say the least, I greatly appreciate all of the work that Jori Lewis has put in to shining light on what appears to be an oft-overlooked chapter in slavery’s history. “Slaves for Peanuts” proved to be a solid, eye-opening read for me, and I am sure that it will do the same for many others, not to mention make quite a few people probably think quite differently about one of their favorite snack foods.