Cape Coast Castle

Cape Coast Castle (Swedish: Carolusborg) was one of about forty “slave castles”, or major merchant fortresses, built on the Gold Coast of West Africa (now Ghana) by merchants. Europe. It was originally a Portuguese “feitoria” or trading post, founded in 1555, which they named Cabo Corso. In 1653, however, the Swedish African Company built a wooden fortress there. It was originally a centre for the timber and gold trade. It was later used in the transatlantic slave trade. Other Ghanaian slave castles include Elmina Castle and Christiansborg Fort. They were used to hold slaves before being loaded onto ships and sold in the Americas, especially the Caribbean. This “one-way door” is the final step before crossing the Atlantic Ocean. 

Trade History

 The large amount of gold dust found in Ghana is a major draw for Europe, and many  Cape Coast natives have used it to their advantage. In exchange for gold, mahogany, other locally produced goods, and enslaved people, local Africans received clothing, blankets, spices, sugar, silk, and more. . Cape Coast Castle is a market where these deals take place.  At the time, enslaved Africans were a valuable commodity in the Americas and elsewhere, and slavery was the main trade on the Cape Coast. Because of this, many changes have been made to Cape Coast Castle. One of the changes is the addition of large underground dungeons that can hold up to a thousand slaves waiting to be exported. Many European nations flocked to the Cape Coast to gain a foothold in the slave trade. The business was very competitive leading to disputes and for this reason, Cape Coast Castle changed hands many times in the history of its business. In Cape Coast Castle, the underground dungeon is a space of terror, death, and darkness. This is a location directly adjacent to the European living quarters and the high administrative areas, where living is relatively luxurious. The basement of this majestic fortress was often the last memory of the slaves of their homeland before being shipped across the Atlantic, as it marked the beginning of their journey.

 History of the building 

 The first fort established on the present site of Cape Coast Castle was built by Hendrik Caerloff for the Swedish Africa Company. Karloff was a former employee of the Dutch West India Company who rose through the tax ranks before working in the company later founded by Louis de Geer. A former high-ranking Dutch officer, Caerloff had friendly relations with the local chiefs who needed to establish a trading post. In 1650, Caerloff successfully obtained permission from the King of Fetu to establish a fortress at Cabo Corso (meaning “short cloak” in Portuguese, which was later turned into Cape Coast in English).  The first wooden pavilion was erected at the site in 1653 and named Carolusborg after King Charles X of Sweden.

Karloff returned to Europe in 1655, leaving Johann Philipp von Krusenstjerna in charge of Carolusborg. However, Louis de Geer had died in the meantime, and Caerloff was involved in a serious dispute with his heirs. In Amsterdam, he persuaded merchants to finance the Danish West India Company, with which he sailed to the Gold Coast in 1657, with the aim of capturing Denmark’s inns and fortresses. Sweden, which he founded himself. 6] With the help of the Dutch, Caerloff succeeded in driving the Swedes away, leaving the Gold Coast on the captured ship Stockholms Slott, and with Von Krusenstjerna on board as a prisoner. 

Karloff left Samuel Smit, also a former employee of the Dutch West India Company, in charge of Carolusborg. The Dutch convinced Smit in 1659 of the rumour that Denmark had been conquered by Sweden, after which Smit joined the Dutch West India Company, ceding all Danish possessions to the Dutch. The Netherlands. However, the King of Fetu was not pleased and prevented the Dutch from capturing the fortress. A year later, the king decided to sell it to the Swedes. After the king’s death in 1663, the Dutch were finally able to take the fortress. 

 Meanwhile, the Danes had established another fortress, Fort Frederiksborg (1661),  a few hundred meters east of Carolusborg. Although perfectly positioned to launch an attack on Carolusborg, the British capture of Carolusborg (1664) during the opening of the Second Anglo-Dutch War prevented the Danes from challenging them. ; The British fortified the fort, which they named Cape Coast Castle, to the point where even the Dutch Admiral Michiel de Ruyter deemed it unconquerable. When the Dutch captured the old British headquarters at Kormantin and rebuilt it as Fort Amsterdam, Cape Coast became the new capital of British possessions on the Gold Coast. 

In 1689, the pirate Duncan Mackintosh was hanged at the castle along with some of his crew, although he was not the last pirate to be hanged at the fortress.  In 1722, the fort was the place where 54  of  Bartholomew Roberts’ pirates were sentenced to death, 52 of them were hanged and 2 were pardoned.

The castle, or castle and keep, its official name, was first restored in the 1920s by the UK Department of Works. 

 In 1957, when Ghana gained independence, the castle was administered by the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB). In the early 1990s, the building was restored by the Ghanaian government with funding from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), with technical assistance from the Institute of Smithsonian and other NGOs. 

Cape Coast Castle and other forts and castles in Ghana are inscribed on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) World Heritage List.