The Woman King

Dahomey was a major center of the slave trade and conducted slaves raids of surrounding areas, brutally capturing and enslaving people. During the mid 1800s, the British sent multiple envoys To Dahomey to convince the head of state at the time - King Ghezo - to abolish the slave trade, but he refused. The British imposed a naval blockade on the ports of Dahomey in order to force them to end the slave trade from 1851 to 1852 and in January 1852, King Ghezo finally relented, signing a treaty with the British to end the export of slaves from Dahomey.