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Staff Pick
I love learning the history of everyday things. Extra points when these things are so small and ubiquitous you probably never really think about them at all. In her debut book, Slaves for Peanuts, Jori Lewis brings to light the dark and violent history of this unassuming legume. A history that continues to affect the lives of millions. Recommended By Ryan V.W., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
A stunning work of popular history — the story of how a single crop transformed the history of slavery
Americans consume over 1.5 billion pounds of peanut products every year. But few of us know the peanut's tumultuous history, or its intimate connection to slavery and freedom.
Lyrical and powerful, Slaves for Peanuts deftly weaves together the natural and human history of a crop that transformed the lives of millions. Author Jori Lewis reveals how demand for peanut oil in Europe ensured that slavery in Africa would persist well into the twentieth century, long after the European powers had official banned it in the territories they controlled.
Delving deep into West African and European archives, Lewis recreates a world on the coast of Africa that is breathtakingly real and unlike anything modern readers have experienced. Slaves for Peanuts is told through the eyes of a set of richly detailed characters — from an African-born French missionary harboring fugitive slaves, to the leader of a Wolof state navigating the politics of French imperialism — who challenge our most basic assumptions of the motives and people who supported human bondage.
At a time when Americans are grappling with the enduring consequences of slavery, here is a new and revealing chapter in its global history.
Review
"In this whirlwind tour with the yellow-blossomed peanut across the Atlantic world, journalist Jori Lewis skillfully unveils the intertwined and troubling trajectory of plants, people, slavery, and colonialism. Slaves for Peanuts is a broad, complex, and unexpected environmental history vibrantly told." Tiya Miles, professor of history, Harvard University, and author of All That She Carried
Review
"Slaves for Peanuts is a revelation. With elegant prose and engaging details, Lewis uncovers a vital history that promises to transform our understanding of slavery and colonialism. Though focused on a single crop, this terrain is vast and deep. I highly recommend this outstanding work." Imani Perry, Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies, Princeton University, and author of Breathe
Review
"Jori Lewis's superbly readable book does more than bring life to something we all too often ignore: the history of slavery in Africa. She has also found a sort of African version of the Underground Railroad. And all of this is connected to an everyday food whose history we seldom think of." Adam Hochschild, journalist, historian, lecturer, and bestselling author of King Leopold's Ghost
Review
"Slaves for Peanuts is an extraordinary and often tender work of meticulous research that spans time and continents, an insightful and captivating narrative of how slavery in Africa supported industrialization in the West, and how enslaved people took back their freedom. I am in awe of the authoritative care with which Jori Lewis lays out the entangled relationships between white supremacy, capitalism, food, and the indefatigable human agency. A must-read that illustrated the long-standing history of the many ways in which the African continent has been for centuries paying the price for the comforts of the Global North." Anna Badkhen, author of Fisherman's Blues
Review
"Jori Lewis has achieved the nearly impossible task of educating us about peanuts, a vegetable juggernaut that has changed the world, while recounting stories of slavery and freedom, all presented with extraordinary nuance and humanity. Slaves for Peanuts is a triumph of deep research and engaging writing." Andrés Reséndez, professor, department of history, University of California, Davis, and author of The Other Slavery
Review
"In this magnificently researched, beautifully told narrative history, Jori Lewis brings the roiling story of African slavery and liberation to life. By combing through stacks of archived documents on three continents, she masterfully weaves a rich tale of African kingdoms and European 'civilizers'; of unbathed Englishmen and mystical priestesses; of camel caravans and railroad bandits; of imperial decrees, epic poems, and forests in the mist. At the center of it all stands the towering figure of an African protestant pastor and liberator; and, not far away, the fertile soils that would send the humble, mighty peanut to distant shores, and into history." Sandy Tolan, professor of journalism, USC Annenberg, and bestselling author of The Lemon Tree
About the Author
Jori Lewis is an independent journalist who has reported for media outlets including PRI's The World, Discover Magazine, and Aeon. Lewis was a contributing reporter to the George Polk Award-winning series Early Signs. Slaves for Peanuts (The New Press) is her first book. Lewis lives in Dakar, Senegal.