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Haunting Legacy of the Slave Trade: Elmina Castle (Martin Storey, Australia, 12/11/20 3:47 am)

Thank you for asking about Elmina castle, in Ghana.

From https://visitghana.com/attractions/elmina-castle/ , which has slave trade statistics and some videos:

St George's Castle, a Unesco heritage site, was built as a trading post by the Portuguese in 1482, and captured by the Dutch in 1637.

The main Dutch trades were gold and slaves; they reconstructed the castle between 1770 and 1775. Until 1872, the castle served as the focal coordinating point for Dutch Gold Coast activities. In 1682, the author Jean Barbot described St. George's Castle as having "no equal on all the coast of Guinea, with respect to beauty and strength."

On 6th April, 1872, the castle was ceded to the British. In recent years, it has served as Police Recruit Training Centre, a secondary school, and it is presently a historical museum. St. George's Castle is featured on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

I don't usually take many photos and I don't seem to find any of that particular stop. I find it easier to speak to local people without a camera. However, below are a few photos from Wikimedia.

JE comments:  A chilling testament to humanity's cruelty.  To think that the castle could have been celebrated for its "beauty and strength."  Thank you, Martin, for teaching us about a forgotten place that played such a significant role in world history.

This, at the end of the terrace, is the little window from which the chief of the fort could peek into the women`s courtyard and make his pick. The poor girl would be pushed up a ladder through a trap door straight into the chief`s apartment.

On the ground floor, to the left, the women’s cells (“dungeon”) and to the right, the men’s.

Inside some of the holding cells:

The prisoners would have to squeeze through the “door of no return,” straight onto a ship that would take them to the New World.

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