The diary of Antera Duke : an eighteenth-century African slave trader / Stephen D. Behrendt, A.J.H. Latham, and David Northrup.

Originally published: 2010.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction --- The Diary and Old Calabar History --- The Slave Trade at Old Calabar --- The Produce Trade at Old Calabar --- Old Calabar's Trading Networks --- The Diary of Antera Duke: Notes on the Text.

In his diary, Antera Duke (circa 1735-ca. 1809) wrote the only surviving eyewitness account of the slave trade by an African merchant. A leader in late eighteenth-century Old Calabar, a cluster of Efik-speaking communities in the Cross River region, he resided in Duke Town, forty-five miles from the Atlantic Ocean in what is now southeast Nigeria. His diary, written in trade English from 1785 to 1788, is a candid account of daily life in an African community at the height of Calabar's overseas commerce. It provides valuable information on Old Calabar's economic activity both with other African businessmen and with European ship captains who arrived to trade for slaves, produce, and provisions. -- Back cover.