The trade

Originally the Europeans came to West Africa in search of gold, and the name Gold Coast reflected the fact that this region became the centre of the West African gold trade.

The explosive increase in sugar production, and development of the plantations in the West Indies and the Americas from the middle of the seventeenth century created an insatiable demand for labour in the form of African slaves. The chief emphasis of the European trade with West Africa thus shifted to slaves, and the Gold Coast was drawn heavily into this appalling trade in human beings. Leading actors on the European side were the various national chartered companies, which also were in charge of the forts. Here the company officials conducted trade. On the African side, trade was either in the hands of individual slave traders, or professional agents acting on behalf of chiefs and kings. Slaves were exchanged for a broad variety of goods, such as textiles, muskets and gunpowder, spirits, iron bars, tobacco, etc. Slave trader and merchant, Ludevig Ferdinand Römer, gained valuable experience in his trade at Fort Fredensborg.

Role of the forts

The forts, with their cannons and soldiers, were military establishments required to keep European rivals away, as well as for defence against African enemies. They were also commercial centres, the "fort community" constituting a kind of "city state" involved in local politics in much the same way as other petty states on the Coast. The fort gave protection, not only to its own personnel, but at times also to the people of allied local towns who sought refuge there when under attack. The actual power of the fort did not extend much further than the range of its cannons. However, strategic partnerships and shifting alliances with African chiefs and kings were used to safeguard trade and to extend the fort's political influence. Africans were truly masters of their own land, and African-European relations were built on mutual interest and interdependance until the mid-nineteenth century when the European quest for colonial control gained ground.

The transatlantic slave trade was the most extensive forced migration of human beings in history. Millions of Africans were carried across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas. It has been estimated that during the period 1450-1870, about 13 million enslaved Africans were shipped on European and American vessels. The kingdom of Denmark-Norway was a minor colonial power. Its tropical empire was limited to the West Indian islands of St.