Book excerpt: Grim and foreboding, they dominate the skyline, personifying the slave trade in all its ramifications - brutality, estrangement, alienation and social death. The slave forts of Ghana constitute an integral part of the Atlantic slave trade, and yet they have received scant scholarly attention. House of Slaves & `Door of No Return' addresses this gap in scholarly history, focusing on the dark past of these forts as well as their modern significance.