Wives of the leopard Book

	List of Illustrations
	Preface
	Author's Note
Ch. 1	Along the Slave Coast	1
	Power, the Monarchy, and the Palace	6
	Learning about Dahomey	27
Ch. 2	From Dahomey's Origins to 1740	40
	The Slave Trade and the Founding of the Kingdom	40
	The Authority of Princesses	51
	The Conquest of Allada and Whydah	56
	Customs, Court, and the Palace in the Early 1700s	63
	Adonon and the Creation of the Office of Kpojito	71
Ch. 3	The Age of Tegbesu and Hwanjile	81
	Succession	81
	The Kpojito Hwanjile	91
	Ministers, Traders, and the Monarchy	96
	The Impact of Oyo	110
Ch. 4	The Struggle to Maintain the State	119
	The Reigns of Kpengla, Agonglo, and Adandozan	119
	The Military in the Late Eighteenth Century	129
	The Palace in the Late Eighteenth Century	142
	Successions and Political Instability	153
Ch. 5	The Implications of Cultural and Commercial Change	166
	Gezo's Coup d'Etat	166
	The Kpojito Agontime	178
	Innovations of the Age of Gezo	182
Ch. 6	The Decline of Dahomey	223
	The New Militarism	226
	Surveillance and the Palace	233
	Religion and Royal Control	250
	Succession in the Time of Glele and Behanzin	259
Ch. 7	War, Disintegration, and the Failure of the Ancestors	274
	The Rise of Behanzin	274
	European Imperialism	277
	The War with the French	284
	Agoliagbo and the Aftermath of the French Conquest	305
Ch. 8	Reprise	312
	Notes	323
	Glossary	353
	Bibliography	355
	Index	367