Abina and the Important Men is a compelling and powerfully illustrated 'graphic history' based on an 1876 court transcript of a West African woman named Abina, who was wrongfully enslaved and took her case to court. The book is a microhistory that does much more than simply depict an event in the past; it uses the power of illustration to convey important themes in world history and to reveal the processes by which history is made. Winner of the James Harvey Robinson Prize from the American Historical Association--and widely acclaimed by educators and students--the third edition features a new section considering the place of race in the story. The story of Abina Mansah--a woman 'without history' who was wrongfully enslaved, escaped to British-controlled territory, and then took her former master to court--takes place in the complex world of the Gold Coast at the onset of late nineteenth-century colonialism. Slavery becomes a contested ground, as cultural practices collide with an
