second of which led to the destruction of Owu and Egba in the 1820s and the collapse of Oyo and Ife over the next decade. Only Ijebu kingdom survived the ravages of the slave trade.  
Ijebu was one of the three coastal Yoruba states - others being Awori and Ilaje to the west and east of Ijebu. The name Ijebu, according to traditions, came from Ajebu, one of the early immigrants into a region of dense forest partly inhabited by the aboriginal Idoko. The immigrants defeated their hosts whose remnants now occupy the region astride Ijebu, Ikale, Ilaje and Ondo kingdoms and Makun, Osifekunde's place of birth, one of their ancient towns. ${ }^{5}$ Ijebu traders were the primary beneficiaries of the violence in the Yoruba interior and the attendant boom in the slave trade. By the 1810s, because of their strategic location at the terminus of three major trade routes, the Apomu-lagoon road and waterways of Rivers Ogun and Osun, Ijebu traders controlled most of the Yoruba foreign trade. But Ijebu traders did not simply sit on the lagoon waiting for enslaved people from the interior. They also pushed inland to major slave markets, hence the existence of Ijebu wards at Ibadan, Ondo, Ife and Apomu. Thus, more than any other Yoruba district, Ijebu became a trading state whereas agriculture predominated in other areas. Its people are known for their business acumen which dated back a couple of centuries; a child was expected to know the value of money and have the attributes of a trader by age twelve. By the eighteenth century, the Ijebu people had become major actors in the Atlantic trade. They bought war captives in the interior for sale to European traders on the coast in exchange for European merchandise. Osifekunde's story captured changes in Yoruba history from about 1750 to 1820, the evolution of the Yoruba diaspora in the Atlantic world, and an enslaved African's fight for freedom. ${ }^{5}$