This flintlock musket was probably made for the British army and dates from the late 1700s. It was traded in Africa (probably for enslaved Africans) where guns were in great demand. The new owner added the cowrie shell decorations on the handle, denoting status and wealth.
© The British Empire & Commonwealth Museum
Accession reference: The British Empire & Commonwealth Museum, 1992/011/003
Themes
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Trade and Commerce
Understand how the demand for luxury goods and the Industrial Revolution fuelled the transatlantic slave trade, and how the British…