As an anthropological archaeologist, I am interested in issues of social complexity, the exercise of political authority, urban/rural dynamics, and the material dimension of religious pageantry and ritual. Since 1999, I have explored these topics in relation to the kingdom of Hueda. Hueda alongside its namesake the coastal trading entrepôt of Ouidah are synonymous with the opulence, damage, and social intensification associated with the Atlantic trade in war captives. My research uses documentary, spoken, and material sources to investigate the local history of a locale from which approximately one million people departed into the Middle Passage.