Sandra E. Greene, “Slave Owners of West Africa: Decision Making in the Age of Abolition” (Indiana UP, 2017)

·42 min·4 clips

Sandra Greene reveals why she chose to write about West African slave owners, flipping the coin on traditional slavery narratives.

The episode begins with a promotional segment for the New Books Network 2026 audience survey, followed by host Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia introducing the interview with Dr. Sandra Greene. Greene provides background on her academic journey, from growing up in Xenia, Ohio, influenced by her mother's international outlook, to studying at Kalamazoo College and Northwestern University, driven by the Black Power movement and interest in Africa. She explains how her research evolved from social history to slavery studies, with this book emerging from material collected since the 1970s. Greene chose three slave owners—Amegashie Afeku, Nyaho Tamaklo, and Noah Yawo—because she had the most material on them, including interviews with descendants. She highlights the sensitivity of the topic, noting that descendants often fear stigma. For each subject, Greene details their responses to abolition: Afeku, himself of slave descent, opposed it violently; Tamaklo used colonial systems to maintain influence without freeing slaves; and Yawo converted to Christianity and eventually freed his slaves after financial recovery. The discussion covers how these decisions created varied legacies regarding the stigma of slavery. Greene emphasizes her goal of humanizing these figures through emotions and complexity, rather than judging them. She mentions her current project cataloging materials for donation to Northwestern University and reflects on the potential mixed reception of her book in Ghana due to the topic's sensitivity. The interview concludes with Greene sharing that one family granted permission to publish their ancestor's biography, which was crucial for the book's release.

As heard by us

A measured look at the personal logic behind resistance to abolition.

The episode turns on a hard contradiction: why a man descended from enslaved people would defend the system abolition sought to end. Through Amigashi, it traces a figure who built political, economic, and social standing through the world around him, then resisted the kind of…

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Why you'd press play

You want the personal stakes behind abolition, traced through Amigashi, a man of slave descent who had built status inside the system slavery made.

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