This book tells the story of one silver ceremonial sword offered as a gift by French traders to an African agent, and reveals how prestigious gifts shaped the trade of enslaved Africans. Drawing on a rich set of sources in French, English, and Portuguese, as well as artifacts housed in museums across Europe and the Americas, Ana Lucia Araujo illuminates how luxury objects impacted European-African relations, and how these economic, cultural, and social interactions paved the way for the European conquest and colonization of West Africa and West Central Africa.