SLAVE COAST

SLAVE COAST Roughly comprising that portion of the West African coast between the Volta and Niger rivers (about five hundred miles), the so-called Slave Coast was the focal point of European slave-trading activities during the period of the Atlantic slave trade. The majority of slaves procured from the Slave Coast, which today corresponds to the modern nations of Togo, Benin (formerly Dahomey) and western Nigeria, were Yorubas and Dahomans, especially prized by the Europeans for their agri­cultural ability and knowledge. In addition to the Slave Coast, other principal slave-trading centers along the West African coast would include the Gold Coast (modern Ghana) and Lower Guinea (modern eastern Nigeria, Cameroon, Rio Muni, Gabon and southward into northern Angola). See also: ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE and COASTAL FOREST KINGDOMS.