SLO #5 Castle Slaves of the Gold Coast (Discovery)

Cape Coast Castle

I discovered slavery in Africa took many forms during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, such as Castle Slaves. In the late fourteen century in the Gold Coast or modern-day Ghana, the Portuguese constructed forts or “castles” in order to purchase gold during the Afro-European trade. Africans from other areas were brought in to work for Elite Africans in the gold mining industry. Local African men and women became Castle Slaves who worked in European forts. They
received “pay” in the form of trade goods for a life of servitude. Unlike captive slaves of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, Castle Slaves lived with more freedom and “privileges”. They were able to move freely around the forts, had better nutrition and continue family lives. Men and women had specific roles; men were skilled crafts men and even high paid sailors while women where domestic caregivers who maintained forts. Some women raised their children in the trading forts.¹



Cape Coast Castle

The transformation of the Castle Slaves continued from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century as the growth of European forts increased along the Gold Coast. Castle Slaves were second and third generation servants, so they had a unique and important relationship in the slave trade. Their connections with both European languages and African communities and cultures developed the creole culture along the Gold Coast. The Castle Slaves helped break the language barrier between captives of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and the Europeans. The English pushed the Dutch Policy of the Gold Coast as they became more involved in the business of slaves on the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.² Slave trade tripled from 75,000 to 229,00 in the beginning of the eighteenth century³, so the once exclusive gold mining slavery on the Gold Coast began to shift to selling captives to the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, a more profitable commodity. Castle Slaves helped shape the communities and cultures of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. They had more freedom and privileges than the captives of the slave trade ships, but both were still legal property of Europeans.⁴

1Rebecca Shumway, Castle Slaves of the Eighteenth Century Gold Coast (Ghana), Jan 2014, Vol. 35 Issue 1, p. 84-98.

2 Ibid.

3“Voyages”, The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, 2016, www.slavevoyages.org.

4Rebecca Shumway, Castle Slaves of the Eighteenth Century Gold Coast (Ghana), Jan 2014, Vol. 35 Issue 1, p. 84-98.