Daniel P. Mannix, "Black Cargoes: A History of the Atlantic Slave Trade,
1518-1865" (New York: Viking Press, 1962 -- various reprints available),
says (p. 17), "Slaves from the Gold Coast were highly regarded by the
English and usually sold at a higher price than those from other regions.
In the West Indies they were called Coromantees (a name spelled in various
fashions) after the port of Coromantine, from which many of them had been
shipped. It was not an African tribal name, and the Coromantees may have
belonged to several different tribes; but it seems likely that most of them
were either Fanti, from the largest of the coastal nations, or else Ashanti
from a hundred miles in the interior." Mannix goes on to discuss in more
detail the use of the term, and various attitudes towards "Coromantees" by
slave dealers and buyers.

Hugh C. MacDougall
Secretary/Treasurer
James Fenimore Cooper Society

----------
> From: Beverly Martin <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Slave society in colonial NYC
> Date: Wednesday, May 27, 1998 11:16 AM
>
> Good morning,
> I'm a new subscriber to your list and have been lurking a few days.  The
> breadth of knowledge/interest is most impressive.  May I pose a
> question...
>
> I'm a novelist working on a book set in  NYC and am at the moment
> dealing with the slave insurrection of 1712.  A couple of points
> concerning names puzzle me.  I can find nothing that speaks to any
> existing African People known as the Coromanti, but this term is used
> repeatedly in contemporary documents (Hunter to the Lords Lieutenant,
> for example.).  It is subsequently cited by both Lamb and Booth and
> later by Stokes.   I believe Krueger also uses the term in her
> dissertation Born to Run, but I didn't note it and can't now find it.
> Does anyone know a modern name for this ethnic group, or some other
> explanation - as in they weren't an ethnic group, but.....?
>
> In this same vein, I find a Funk & Wagnells 1895 dictionary entry of ebo
> defined as meaning a person held as a slave in the Caribbean Islands.
> There is a direct correlation vis-a-vis the well known preference for
> so-called "seasoned slaves" from the islands.  Is this, however, an
> earlier spelling of Ibo?  I have long presumed the latter to refer to an
> actual African ethnic group, but I'm suddenly struck with the thought
> that my ignorance is showing.  Better now than in print.  Any help in
> the form of answers or places to look will be gratefully received.  And
> duly acknowledged
>
> Beverly Martin