这是一部惊人的通俗史著作，讲述了一种作物如何改变奴隶制的历史
美国人每年消费超过15亿磅的花生产品。但很少有人知道花生的动荡历史，或者它与奴隶制和自由的密切联系。
抒情而有力的《花生奴隶》巧妙地将这一作物的自然和人类历史编织在一起，改变了数百万人的生活。作家乔里·刘易斯（Jori Lewis）揭示了欧洲对花生油的需求如何确保非洲的奴隶制将持续到二十世纪，而欧洲列强早已在其控制的领土上正式禁止奴隶制。
刘易斯深入挖掘西非和欧洲的档案，在非洲海岸重现了一个惊人的真实世界，与现代读者所经历的一切都不一样。《花生奴隶》是通过一组非常详细的人物的眼睛讲述的，从一个非洲出生的法国传教士窝藏逃跑的奴隶，到一个在法国帝国主义政治中航行的沃洛夫国家的领导人，他们挑战了我们对动机和支持人类奴役的人的最基本假设。
在美国人正在努力应对奴隶制的持久后果之际，这是其全球历史上一个新的、具有启示性的篇章。
Slaves for Peanuts: A Story of Conquest, Liberation, and a Crop That Changed History
A stunning work of popular history—the story of how a 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 officially 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 runaway 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.
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