Letters on West Africa and the Slave Trade. Paul Erdmann Isert�s Journey to Guinea and the Carribean Islands in Columbis (178

Editor's Introduction

12 LETTERS ON WEST AFRICA AND THE SLAVE TRADE Editor’s Introduction The background of Danish activity in Guinea and theWest Indies When Isert first arrived at the Gold Coast in 1783 the Baltic Guinea Company, chartered in 1781, was taking full advantage of an opening in the slave trade, both in Guinea and the West Indies. The American War of Independence had drained off some of the resources of Britain and France from its commencement in 1776, and in 1780 the Dutch,too,became involved in a war with England. These events tended to reduce the economic activities of the other nations involved in the trade in Guinea, and the Danes were able to expand into the ground vacated.There were echoes in Africa of the conflicts elsewhere when British ships attacked the Dutch forts in Guinea and destroyed Fort Crèvecoeur at Accra, thus ending the Dutch presence there and eastward along the coast. Now that there was nothing to stop him, the new Danish Governor, Jens A. Kiøge,set about expanding the Danish area of control eastward.The small English fort at Prampram was evidently no obstacle. Kiøge made treaties of alliance with former Dutch allies along the coast – Teshie, Dutch Accra,Tema, Kpone – and inland with the Krobo. Kongensten Fort was built atAda in 1783 to support theAda against the Awuna.The Sagbadre War in 1784, with victory for the Danes and their allies, resulted in more treaties, all the way eastward to Little Popo.The Danish Fort Prinsensten at Keta was built during this period. Called the ‘florissante’ period of Danish history in Guinea,its days were numbered.The American War of Independence ended with theTreaty ofVersailles in 1783, and when the war between Britain 13 EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION and the Netherlands was concluded in 1784, the Danes returned to them their former areas and rights on the Gold Coast.This was an immediate threat to Kiøge’s plan for expansion, a plan which was looking even farther eastward,toWhydah.The English,uneasy about this, had supplied the Awuna with war material, and some groups in Little Popo were asking the English for aid against the Danish advance.A number of new allies of the Danes now wanted to change their allegiance,and Kiøge had to work very hard to keep control. In 1786 there was a conflict in Keta but the anti-Danish groups were driven out. In 1787 Kiøge, still bent on consolidating Danish trade on the coast, built the last of the Gold Coast forts, ‘Augustaborg’atTeshie,and started the construction of‘Isegram’at Kpone.However,the trade was ineluctably on the wane.The Baltic Guinea Company was taken over by a consortium, The Guinea Entrepreneurs,that same year,and sold again two years later,to four of the staff at Christiansborg,who were permitted to trade privately upon payment of a fee of 50,000 riksdaler annually. It was against this background that Isert was to launch his project. Danish history in the West Indies starts after 1660 when, upon the conclusion of the long period of wars in Europe, Frederick III established himself in Denmark-Norway as absolute monarch, and interest could again be directed overseas. Private excursions had been made to the Caribbean earlier, but with little impact. The post-1660 voyages produced cargoes enticing enough to whet the appetites of Danish and Norwegian merchants.The Danish West India Company was granted a royal charter in 1671.The Danes had already found an uninhabited island, St.Thomas, which boasted an excellent harbour,and they were now‘graciously permitted’by the king to retain this island and to build forts, lodges, offices, etc. on St.Thomas and on other equally‘uninhabited’islands‘uninhabited’ obviously meaning not previously claimed by any other European power. Section 16 of the Company charter permitted it to take up the work of the already existing Glückstadt African Company if the latter showed signs of being unable to live up to the premises 14 LETTERS ON WEST AFRICA AND THE SLAVE TRADE on which it had been established, that is, to supply slaves to West Indian islands. Clearly, the need for assuring a constant supply of slaves was anticipated as early as 1671, and the merger of the two companies did in fact occur in 1697, producing the Danish West India and Guinea Company. The acquisition of islands...