WEST AFRICA IN THE 17TH
TH
AND 18 CENTURIES
THREE LESSONS BASED ON SOURCES
FROM THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
The Three Lessons
1.Why were forts built on the
W.A. Coast?
2.What were Europeans doing
on the W.A. coast and why?
3.How did it affect the people
involved?
LESSON 1: Why forts?
• Let’s look at some pictures and get involved in a discussion
• The first two images will introduce WA at the end of the 18thC
– what can we see and what are the implications of what we
see?
• The third is about forts: what do you think they were for?
1
2
3
August 1678 ye Day Rising Anchor At Assenee
Tuesday 31st this day I had severall cannoes came aboard
from this towne to whome I sold severall goods
for gold and slaves & at 5 of ye clocke this afternoone
ye cannoes went ashoar, this 24 hours I have
had ye winds at W N W & W by 8 degrees
LESSON 2: What were
Europeans doing in West Africa
Instructions given to the captain of a slaving ship written by the
members of the Royal African Company in London in 1687
… Having your said Complement of
Negroes or such part of them as you thinke convenient for your shipp
to carry signe bill of Lading for them for our account & proceed to --Barbados aforesaid & deliver them to our said Factors from whome
you are to receive two thirds part of your freight in the said Negroes
by Lott & a Certificate to us for the remainder.
to prevent the damage which might accrew to your Owners by ye
long stay on the Coast if Negroes should be scarse & cannott in fitt time
& att reasonable tearms be procured on the Gold Coast Wee have laden
some Cowries in your shipp & they from the Castle will supply you with
what else shall be needfull for the Purchase of Negroes to compleatt ye
said Number of 560 on the coast of Arda which wee expect & require that
you husband the best you can for our advantage And if the factors on the
…
This is a drawing of the slaving ship “Brookes” made in 1789 by
Abolitionists (people who wanted to end the slave trade). How does it
relate to what you have just learned from the primary sources?
LESSON 3: How did this trade affect
the people involved?
Broken Hearts?
An extract from the record books of a slaving ship from 26th April 1676:
The captain records the death of a slave woman:
bought by my selfe being very fond of her
Child Carrying her up& downe Wore her to nothing
by which meanes fell into a feaver & dyed
SUICIDES? 1
List of slave deaths from the slave ship log book for April 1676
Aprill 1676
Att Sea
day
17
men
Wo
men
boy
s
Girls
11
5
3
_
brought Over
02
_
_
_
The one was from Wyembah & died of a flux.
The other received ditto who Leaped over board
& drowned himself
SUICIDES? 2
Another extract from the same log book for 4th May 1676; another
man:
Received of Mr Ballwood att Amy? & dyed of
a feaver by Lying in the Longboat in the rain
in the night which no man knew of for hee
went into her privately
How do they compare with Olaudah
Equiano’s experiences which he wrote in
1789?
I was soon put down under the decks, and there I
received such a salutation in my nostrils as I had
never experienced in my life: so that, with the
loathsomeness of the stench, and crying together,
I became so sick and low that I was not able to
eat, nor had I the least desire to taste any thing. I
now wished for the last friend, death, to relieve
me;
“Often did I think many of the inhabitants of
the deep much more happy than myself. I
envied them the freedom they enjoyed, and
as often wished I could change my condition
for theirs. Every circumstance I met with,
served only to render my state more painful,
and heightened my apprehensions, and my
opinion of the cruelty of the whites.”