Archibald Dalzel: Slave Trader and Historian of Dahomey

Abstract

Archibald Dalzel, the author of The History of Dahomey, was born in Scotland in 1740. Unable to practise the medical profession in which he had been trained, he entered the service of the Committee of Merchants Trading to Africa (African Committee) in 1763 as Surgeon, and was posted to Cape Coast in West Africa. There he started slave trading, which remained his only stable employment until his death in 1811. Despite the apparent ease with which profit could be gained from the slave trade during that period, and despite the energy and optimism which he put into his ventures, Dalzel was never a success. He was twice declared a bankrupt and died a disappointed man. The only monument which he left behind and by which he is still remembered is his brilliant compilation on the History of Dahomey.