An Introduction to Church Missionary Society Manuscripts

A collection of Church Missionary Society manuscripts from the early part of the nineteenth century until the late 1860s. In their reports and missives, the missionaries - black and white - document life and activities, such as trade in Yorubaland, Sierra Leone and Dahomey (Benin). The missionaries did not restrict themselves to writing about church missionary activities, rather they reported whatever struck them as worthy news, commenting for example on slavery, commodity commerce, internal and external conflicts. As a whole this collection of primary source material sheds light on a unified understanding of the period, and is an important contribution to historical reconstruction.