Cape Coast Castle
UNESCO World Heritage Site | |
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Official name | Cape Coast Castle |
Part of | Forts and Castles, Volta, Greater Accra, Central and Western Regions |
Criteria | Cultural: (vi) |
Inscription | 1979 (3rd Session) |
Coordinates | 5°06′13″N 1°14′28″W / 5.10361°N 1.24111°W |
Cape Coast Castle (Swedish: Carolusborg) is one of about forty "slave castles", or large commercial forts, built on the Gold Coast of West Africa (now Ghana) by European traders. It was originally a Portuguese "feitoria" or trading post, established in 1555, which they named Cabo Corso.
In 1653, the
Trade history
The large quantity of
and many other items. The castle at Cape Coast was a market where these transactions took place.At the time, enslaved Africans were a valuable commodity in the Americas and elsewhere, and enslaved people were the main trade in Cape Coast.[4] Due to this, many changes were made to Cape Coast Castle. One of the alterations was the addition of large underground dungeons that could hold as many as a thousand enslaved people awaiting export. Many European nations flocked to Cape Coast in order to get a foothold in the slave trade. The business was very competitive, which led to conflict and for this reason, the castle at Cape Coast changed hands many times during the course of its commercial history.
Living conditions
In Cape Coast Castle, the underground dungeon was a space of terror, death, and darkness. This stood as a direct juxtaposition to the European living quarters and commanding heights of the administrative quarters above, whose occupants lived relatively luxuriously. The basement of this imposing fortress was often the last experience enslaved people had of their homeland before being shipped off across the Atlantic, as this signified the beginning of their journey.[5]
Building history
The first fort established on the present site of Cape Coast Castle was built by
Karloff returned to Europe in 1655, leaving Johann Philipp von Krusenstjerna in charge of Carolusborg. Louis de Geer had, however, died in the meantime, and Caerloff got himself involved in a serious dispute with his heirs. In Amsterdam, he convinced merchants to give a financial injection to the Danish West India Company, for which he set sail to the Gold Coast in 1657, with the goal in mind to capture for Denmark the Swedish lodges and forts he had established himself.[7] With the help of the Dutch, Caerloff succeeded in driving the Swedes out, leaving the Gold Coast on the captured ship Stockholms Slott, and with Von Krusenstjerna on board as a prisoner.[7]
Karloff had left Samuel Smit, also a former employee of the Dutch West India Company, in charge of Carolusborg.[8] The Dutch were able to convince Smit in 1659 of the rumor that Denmark had been conquered by Sweden, upon which Smit rejoined the Dutch West India Company, handing over all Danish possessions to the Dutch. The King of Fetu was displeased with this, however, and prevented the Dutch from taking possession of the fort. A year later, the King decided to sell it to the Swedes. After the King died in 1663, the Dutch were finally able to occupy the fort.[8]
The Danes had in the meantime established another fort,
In 1689, the pirate Duncan Mackintosh was hanged at the Castle with a few of his crew, though he would not be the last pirate hanged at the fort.[11] In 1722, the fort was the site where 54 men of the crew of the pirate Bartholomew Roberts were condemned to death, of whom 52 were hanged and two reprieved.
In 1757, during the Seven Years' War, a French naval squadron badly damaged and nearly captured Cape Coast Castle.[12] This event was likely one of the most important reasons to entirely reconstruct the Castle, which was quite notorious for its collapsing walls and leaking roofs.[13] In 1762, an extensive spur ending in a tower was built on the western side and in 1773, a high building along the north curtain was erected, during which the last remnants of the 17th-century fort were demolished. Greenhill Point, a bastion to the east of the castle, was replaced by two new bastions, with a sea gate in the middle. To the south, two new bastions, named Grassle's Bastions, replaced an old round tower as the main defensive work. The tower, which now had no military use, was extended in the 1790s with two stories, now becoming the governors' apartments. The space below Grassle's Bastions was used as the new slave dungeons.[14]
Siege of Carolusborg (1652)
After the construction of Carolusborg in 1652, the Dutch saw it as a clear threat to their trade monopoly and began plotting a way to drive the Swedes away, a siege was organized in 1652, but it ended in failure, since the Swedes refused to surrender.[15]
Notable governors
In 1824, British Governor Sir
Restoration
The castle, or castle and dungeon, to give it its official name, was first restored in the 1920s by the British Public Works Department.
In 1957, when Ghana became independent, the castle came under the care of the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB). In the early 1990s the building was restored by the Ghanaian Government, with funds from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), with technical assistance from the Smithsonian Institution and other NGOs.
Cultural references
The 2016 novel Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi makes frequent references to the Castle. The contrast in living conditions between the Europeans living above and the enslaved people living below are highlighted in the individual stories of two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, during their time at the castle. While Effia, the wife of an English slaver, lives in luxury, Esi suffers in the squalid living conditions in the dungeons below unbeknownst to her half-sister.[18]
The 1993 film
3D documentation with terrestrial laser scanning
In 2015, the
Gallery
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Cape Coast Castle
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The wall
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Cape Coast Castle, as rebuilt by the British in the 18th century
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Cape Coast Castle, Ghana
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Cannonballs at Cape Coast Castle, a structure used in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
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Cape Coast Castle, Ghana
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First Lady Melania Trump tours the Cape Coast Castle
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Cape Coast Castle, Ghana
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Male Slave Dungeon
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Cape Coast Castle, Ghana
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1874, during the Third Anglo-Ashanti war
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Cape Coast Castle
See also
- Town of Cape Coast, Ghana
- Cape Coast Castle Museum, Cape Coast, Ghana
- List of castles in Ghana
References
- ^ "Cape Coast Castle - Castles, Palaces and Fortresses". www.everycastle.com. Retrieved 2019-01-17.
- ^ "Ghana's Slave Castles: The Shocking Story of the Ghanaian Cape Coast". theculturetrip.com.
- ^ "Forts and Castles, Volta, Greater Accra, Central and Western Regions". UNESCO World Heritage Convention. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Retrieved 9 Oct 2022.
- ^ "Cape Coast Castle (1652- ) •". 2009-12-02. Retrieved 2022-03-22.
- ^ Apter, Andrew. “History in the Dungeon: Atlantic Slavery and the Spirit of Capitalism in Cape Coast Castle, Ghana”. The American Historical Review, vol. 122, no. 1, 2017, pp. 23–54., doi:10.1093/ahr/122.1.23.
- ^ Van Dantzig 1999, pp. 23–24.
- ^ a b Van Dantzig 1999, p. 28.
- ^ a b Van Dantzig 1999, p. 29.
- ^ Van Dantzig 1999, pp. 31, 34.
- ^ Van Dantzig 1999, p. 34.
- ^ Hill, S. Charles (1919). Carnac, Sir Richard Temple (ed.). "EPISODES OF PIRACY IN THE EASTERN SEAS". Indian Antiquary a Journal of Oriental Research. 48. Delhi: Swati Publications: 217–219. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
- ^ Van Dantzig 1999, pp. 61–62.
- ^ Van Dantzig 1999, pp. 59, 63.
- ^ Van Dantzig 1999, pp. 59–60.
- ^ Milhist (2013-11-01). "Svenskekrig på Guineakysten -". milhist.dk (in Danish). Retrieved 2024-04-14.
- ^ Halik Kochanski Sir Garnet Wolseley: Victorian Hero 1999 - Page 61 1852851880 "The British governor, Sir James McCarthy, was defeated by the Asante army, committed suicide, and his skull was sent back to the Asante capital Kumasi where it was used as a drinking cup.1"
- ^ Watt 2010.
- ^ "A Sprawling Epic of Africa and America". The New Yorker. 2016-05-23. Retrieved 2023-03-06.
- ^ "Site - Cape Coast Castle". zamaniproject.org. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
- ^ Chris Giles. "Meet the scientists immortalizing African heritage in virtual reality". CNN. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
- ^ Rüther, Heinz. "An African heritage database, the virtual preservation of Africa's past" (PDF). www.isprs.org.
- ISSN 0001-9933.
- .
Sources
- Osei-Tutu, Brepong (2004), "African American reactions to the restoration of Ghana's 'slave castles' ", in: Public Archaeology; 3/4, 2004, pp. 195–204. ISSN 1465-5187.
- Shumway, Rebecca (2011), The Fante and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Rochester: University of Rochester Press. ISBN 9781580463911.
- St. Clair, William (2006), The Grand Slave Emporium: Cape Coast Castle and the British slave trade. London: Profile Books ISBN 1-86197-904-5.
- Van Dantzig, Albert (1999). Forts and Castles of Ghana. Accra: Sedco Publishing. ISBN 9964-72-010-6.
- WorldStatesmen - Ghana
- Watt, Julie (2010). Poisoned Lives: The Regency Poet Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L.E.L.) and British Gold Coast Administrator George Maclean. Sussex Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-84519-420-8.