The Two Princes of Mpfumo

Lindsay O'Neill is Associate Professor (Teaching) of History at the University of Southern California and author of The Opened Letter: Networking in the Early Modern British World, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.

"O'Neill excavates the story of two East African princes who boarded a British ship with the intent of traveling to London only to be sold into slavery in Jamaica...As O'Neill follows the two men, she shines a light on the lesser-known British slave trade in East Africa and Madagascar and the troubling, naive, and conflicting interests of the British East India Company, Royal African Company, and Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. O'Neill's thoughtful and extensive research is apparent...Readers will better understand the complex moral, racial, and trade networks the princes traversed."" (Kirkus Reviews) "Beautifully written and superbly researched, Lindsay O'Neill's brilliant book thrives on a winning combination of vivid story-telling and a deep, expansive appreciation of the settings her actors operated in. Most important, she skillfully handles the evidence to allow 'the two princes of Mpfumo' some control over their lives." (William Pettigrew, author of Freedom's Debt: The Royal African Company and the Politics of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1672-1752) "Any book that can bring to life individual victims of the eighteenth-century slave trade is significant. That the princes come from East Africa is even more so. Through Lindsay O'Neill's sophisticated work, we gain insight into the many and various schemes the European powers had in East Africa and even in remote islands in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, all important to understanding those rivalries and ambitions. The Two Princes of Mpfumo is required reading for scholars and students interested in the slave trade." (Randy Sparks, author of The Two Princes of Calabar: An Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Odyssey)