"DeCorse's thought-provoking study is a work of impressive scholarship. Scholars working in Ghanaian and West African history, Atlantic World studies, trans-Atlantic slave trade studies, and word-systems studies, and historical archaeology will find it a rich source of information and many new insights." Ray A Kea in Journal of African Archaeology "[A]n exceptionally well-written and well-sourced study of life in an evolving African coastal community during the era of the trans-Atlantic trade. The book will doubtlessly become a classic study of culture contact and change in Africa, and will serve as a valuable comparative case for historical archaeologists examining the contact setting in the New World." J. Cameron Monroe in International Journal of African Historical Studies "Twenty years ago Christopher DeCorse published the most comprehensive archaeological study of any historic site on the West African coast. In a new prologue, DeCorse reviews extensive new research that builds on his earlier findings-particularly in the areas of Atlantic transformations, settlement history, maritime cultural resources, skeletal remains, ceramic chronology, and cultural resource management." Leland Ferguson, University of South Carolina "A watershed in the study of global encounters that shaped the human experience in the African littorals and the role of African agency in the making of the modern world.

A new prologue updating the research in Elmina and Ghana's Central Region ensures that this groundbreaking book will continue to serve as an interdisciplinary template and resource for understanding African Atlantic history." Akin Ogundiran, University of North Carolina, Charlotte.