• Casabio ChroniclesCasabio ChroniclesTraveler
    Where up to 400 enslaved men, woman and children we kept for up to a year before the ocean journey. 1Where up to 400 enslaved men, woman and children we kept for up to a year before the ocean journey. Enslaved people were made to crawl under the floorboards of the house.Where wood slept on the floor (to better hear if anyone slave was escaping), and close to his safe. Original furniture from that time. Small arch where slaves would enter the building.

    Maison des Esclaves d'Agbodrafo

    May 23 in Togo ☁️ 27 °C

    As we have been journeying, we have been learning more and more about the horrors of humanity in the form of the Atlantic slave trade.  The Maison des Esclaves d'Agbodrafo, also known as the Wood Home, was an important stop for us. 

    This house was built in 1835 by the Scottish enslaver John Henry Wood.  Constructed in an Afro-Brazilian style, the building served as a clandestine hub for the illegal slave trade after Britain abolished the transatlantic trade in 1807, operating until 1852!

    The house was constructed for Assiakoley, the chief of the Adjigo clan, who had been exiled from Aného and relocated to Agbodrafo near Lake Togo.  Enslaved people captured from neighboring regions (Benin, Nigeria, and Togo) were held in a low-ceilinged cellar known as the "Puits des Enchainés," accessible via a hidden trapdoor in the main hall, before being transported by boat to the Americas.    Read more