Beads

These are strings of pink and white beads. Glass beads were a regular cargo from England to Africa. In the 1770s they made up between 25% and 50% of the value of cargoes shipped by the Liverpool merchant William Davenport to the Cameroons. Davenport also supplied other slave traders and in 1766-70 sold beads worth about £39,000. Many came from Venice, which produced the finest glass beads, but demand in Africa was so great that they were increasingly made in many other parts of Western Europe.

Credit/copyright:   © National Museums Liverpool


Themes
Trade and Commerce
Africa before Transatlantic Enslavement