Gold Coast Rivalries and the Slave Trade to the Americas, c. 1600–1700

Angela Sutton, Vanderbilt University

Paper proposal for slave trade panel (AHA Denver 2017)

Title

Gold Coast Rivalries and the Slave Trade to the Americas, c. 1650-1700

Abstract:

The 17th century Gold Coast is an often overlooked location of the slave trade due to a variety of factors. From 1650 to 1700, representatives from five European trading companies as well as a host of unaffiliated European merchants traded with locals in this West African region. These novice traders relied on Portuguese precedents, connections, and language to initiate their trade in the region. Drawing on under-utilized business records of the Dutch, Swedish, and Prussian slave trading companies from the national archives of the Netherlands and Sweden, as well as the Prussian Privy State Archives, this paper will investigate ports of arrival and disembarkation of the companies that operated in the Gold Coast during this time. In doing so, this paper underscores the relationship between Gold Coast politics and the destinations of enslaved Africans in the Americas.