5 little-known black female slave traders who changed the course of history

Fenda Lawrence

Fenda Lawrence operated in the Saloum town of Kaur as an 18th-century African slave trader.

Her marriage to an Englishman gave her the privilege to act as a go-between for the British and French traders and the local Africans.

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Lawrence trafficked slaves between America and her homeland of Senegambia. In May 1772, she visited Georgia with five personal slaves and established herself in Savannah as a merchant and slave trader and later became a free black woman for both tourism and trade.

The once Gambian slave trader, after becoming a freed black woman, also became a wealthy merchant.