The notion that Europeans had a duty to civilize "slaves, sinners and savages" was used as a justification for nineteenth-century colonialism and evangelization. Wherever European missionaries traveled, they carried the message that slavery and slave trading were morally abhorrent. Despite deep antislavery sentiments in Britain, the abolition of slavery in colonial Ghana did not end the forced labor of children in the colony. The process and consequences of abolition in the Caribbean and in India shaped the steps that were taken when slavery was outlawed in colonial Ghana. Following the Emancipation Ordinance, the use of children as slaves was particularly common. The Basel Mission, in particular, often relied on the labor of unpaid children. These children were largely students at the mission schools who split their time between general education, Bible study, and unpaid labor. The conflict between the missionaries' philosophical opposition to slavery and their need to support the continued growth of the Mission through trade, led to a complicated relationship between the missionaries and African children. Despite its opposition to slavery, the Basel Mission was often directly involved in mediating the exploitation of child labor through established African institutions such as slavery, pawnship, and debt bondage. © 2014 Taylor & Francis.

Abolition Slavery Forced labor Childhood Basel Mission Gold Coast

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