Pepple dynasty

The Pepple dynasty was a ruling family in the 15th- to 19th-century kingdom of Bonny, located in present-day Rivers state, southern Nigeria. This dynasty reached its zenith in the 18th and early 19th centuries, with an economy heavily reliant on the sale of slaves to European traders. Bonny was a significant slave-exporting depot in West Africa, with approximately 20,000 individuals, primarily Igbo and other hinterland groups, shipped to the Americas in 1790. The Pepple kings opposed the British efforts to end the slave trade in the 1830s. By the 1850s, Bonny transitioned to exporting palm oil and palm kernels. The port regained importance in the late 1950s with the exploitation of oil in the Niger River delta.1