Structures with Dungeons
Forts were a characteristic of European settlements in North America, India, and South-East Asia and on the African coast. Forts were both a display of strength and an unmistakable suggestion of white frailty. The Portuguese were the pioneers of African forts, with buildings at Mina (1482) and Axim (1503) constructed to defend their gold trade against other Europeans, but also to intimidate and overwhelm Africans. The British Royal African Company (originating in 1663) followed the Portuguese example, creating fortified settlements along 'their' stretch of the coast. Its main base was Cape Coast castle at Fetu, but other fortifications were built at Sekondi, Accra, Discove, Kommenda, Winnebah and Anomabu, with two more in Senegambia and one each in Sierra Leone and at Whydah. Some were simple buildings; others were complex and substantial fortresses which survive to this day. They were followed by many other European nations: The Spanish, the Dutch, the French, the Germans, the Danes and the Swedes. They were trading posts, with a host of offices, storage rooms and negotiating forums. They were defenses against Africans and other Europeans, their guns trained seaward against the possibility of attack from enemy ships. And they provided home -- temporarily or long term -- for a procession of white men and for many more Africans. Our overview will concentrate on the Elmina Castle which was erected by Portugal in 1482 as São Jorge da Mina (present day Ghana, it was originally built to protect the gold trade; and on the British's Cape Coast Castle. Both today are UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Above all else, the slave castles and forts came to epitomize the value and apparent permanence of the slave trade. Yet it was the rapid expansion and growing importance of the slave trade which, by the 1720s, had begun to render the castles less vital. It no longer made a profit and had created a demand it could not supply. Henceforth, the markets of the Americas were satisfied by individual traders and companies, largely unfettered by any trace of restrictive economic philosophy and seeking only to ferry as many live Africans as they could (as noted in our "overview page" entitled "The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade"). Not burdened by the substantial overheads of a major monopoly company (especially the maintenance of the forts), they could trade in Africans more efficiently, more nimbly -- and more profitably:
In some forts, light and air filtered into the slaves' prisons from grilles set in the overhead walkways. The enslaved Africans could see free people walking above them, almost as precisely as they were to see the crews of the slave ships pacing the deck above them.
Above all else, the slave castles and forts came to epitomize the value and apparent permanence of the slave trade. Yet it was the rapid expansion and growing importance of the slave trade which, by the 1720s, had begun to render the castles less vital. It no longer made a profit and had created a demand it could not supply. Henceforth, the markets of the Americas were satisfied by individual traders and companies, largely unfettered by any trace of restrictive economic philosophy and seeking only to ferry as many live Africans as they could (as noted in our "overview page" entitled "The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade"). Not burdened by the substantial overheads of a major monopoly company (especially the maintenance of the forts), they could trade in Africans more efficiently, more nimbly -- and more profitably:
In some forts, light and air filtered into the slaves' prisons from grilles set in the overhead walkways. The enslaved Africans could see free people walking above them, almost as precisely as they were to see the crews of the slave ships pacing the deck above them.
Elmina Castle
Inside Elmina
Court Yard
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Male and Female Slave Entrances
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Slave Export Gate
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Window of Dungeon for women at Elmina Castle.
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The staircase to the governor's bedroom at Elmina Castle. Many an African woman was taken up this staircase to satisfy the governor's perversions.
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The Portuguese first reached what became known as the Gold Coast in 1471. and in 1481 they decided to build a fort on the coast in order to ensure the protection of their trade. This fort was the first pre-cast building to have been planned and executed in Sub-Saharan Africa. Upon its completion, Elmina was established as a proper city, with the new fort, Elmina Castle, signifying the permanent involvement of Europeans in West Africa, and had a considerable effect on Africans living on the coast. At the urging of the Portuguese, Elmina declared itself an independent state whose Governor then took control of the town’s affairs. The people of Elmina were offered Portuguese protection against attacks from neighboring coastal tribes, with whom the Portuguese had much less genial relations (even though they were friendly with the powerful trading nations in the African interior.) If any tribe attempted to trade with a nation other than Portugal, the Portuguese reacted with aggressive force, often by forming alliances with the betraying nation’s enemies. Hostility between tribes increased, and the traditional organization of tribal societies suffered, especially after the Portuguese introduced them to fire-arms, which made the dominance of the stronger tribes easier.
Cape Coast Castle
Inside Cape Coast Castle
Inside Cape Coast Castle
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Male Slave Dungeon
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Door of No Return
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None of the Europeans' forts is a more haunting symbol of the greatest forced migration in history than Cape Coast Castle, the African headquarters of the British slave trade for nearly one hundred and fifty years--until its legal slave trade was abolished in 1807. From this massive building perched on the shores of the South Atlantic ocean endless men, women and children born in Africa were sold as slaves and carried on slave ships in North America, the West Indies and South America and other unknown destinations
The British slaving port at Whydah in Dahomey nearly 300 miles to the east, was administered from Cape Coast Caste. Many hundred miles from the castle in the other direction were the British forts in the Gambia and Sierra Leone, which at times were formally subordinated to the governor in Cape Coast Castle.
During the 1790s, when the British slave trade was at its height, a slaving ship left London, Bristol, Liverpool, or one of half a dozen other British ports every second day. Here millions of our African ancestors passed through the "Door of No Return" at Cape Coast Castle, and, we, their English-speaking descendants are now living today in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, and many other countries. Many of the approximately 3 million (of some estimated 11-15 million Africans) passed through this door on their way on ships bringing them to the unknown world of the Americas.
The British slaving port at Whydah in Dahomey nearly 300 miles to the east, was administered from Cape Coast Caste. Many hundred miles from the castle in the other direction were the British forts in the Gambia and Sierra Leone, which at times were formally subordinated to the governor in Cape Coast Castle.
During the 1790s, when the British slave trade was at its height, a slaving ship left London, Bristol, Liverpool, or one of half a dozen other British ports every second day. Here millions of our African ancestors passed through the "Door of No Return" at Cape Coast Castle, and, we, their English-speaking descendants are now living today in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, and many other countries. Many of the approximately 3 million (of some estimated 11-15 million Africans) passed through this door on their way on ships bringing them to the unknown world of the Americas.
The Obamas visiting Cape Coast Castle