Jan Pranger ( – 13 April 1773) was a Dutch merchant, slave trader and colonial administrator who served as the Director-General of the Dutch Gold Coast from 1730 to 1734. A portrait of him along with an enslaved servant by Dutch artist Frans van der Mijn in on display at the

Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the St ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

Early life

Jan Pranger was born in

to Jan Pranger Sr., a Dutch

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

merchant, and his wife Johanna van Eden. The family belonged to the

middle class The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Commo ...

of the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...

. In 1720, Pranger was employed by the

Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company ( nl, Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie, ''WIC'' or ''GWC''; ; en, Chartered West India Company) was a chartered company of Dutch merchants as well as foreign investors. Among its founders was Willem Usselincx ( ...

as an assistant to the Dutch merchants operating out of

Elmina Elmina, also known as Edina by the local Fante people, Fante, is a town and the capital of the Komenda/Edina/Eguafo/Abirem Municipal District, Komenda/Edina/Eguafo/Abirem District on the south coast of Ghana in the Central Region, Ghana, Centra ...

, one of the lowest administrative ranks available on the

Dutch Gold Coast The Dutch Gold Coast or Dutch Guinea, officially Dutch possessions on the Coast of Guinea (Dutch: ''Nederlandse Bezittingen ter Kuste van Guinea'') was a portion of contemporary Ghana that was gradually colonized by the Dutch, beginning in 1612. ...

. He soon rose in prominence in the Gold Coast, and in 1724 was appointed the head of Fort Crèvecœur in

Accra Accra (; tw, Nkran; dag, Ankara; gaa, Ga or ''Gaga'') is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , ...

, an office which came with the rank of head merchant (

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

: ''oppercommies'') and an accession to the Colonial Council in Elmina.

Director-General of the Dutch Gold Coast

Portret van Machteld Muilman Rijksmuseum SK-A-2249

When the Director-General of the Dutch Gold Coast, Pieter Valkenier, resigned in 1725, he advised the Colonial Council to install either Robert Norre or Pranger as his successor. Probably due to his young age, Pranger was passed over in favour of Robert Norre, but when he resigned in 1729, Pranger was eventually selected for the post of Director-General. Pranger was officially installed as Director-General on 6 March 1730. As Director-General, Pranger soon came into conflict with head merchant Hendrik Hertogh, who operated out of the

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...

in Jaquim on the

Dutch Slave Coast The Dutch Slave Coast (Dutch: ''Slavenkust'') refers to the trading posts of the Dutch West India Company on the Slave Coast, which lie in contemporary Ghana, Benin, Togo, and Nigeria. The primary purpose of the trading post was to supply slave ...

, which was in theory subordinate to the Director-General. In 1732, the factory in Jaquim was looted and burnt by forces from the

Kingdom of Dahomey The Kingdom of Dahomey () was a West African kingdom located within present-day Benin that existed from approximately 1600 until 1904. Dahomey developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon people in the early 17th century and became a region ...

; in response, Pranger dispatched a diplomatic expedition under the leadership of his subordinate Jacobus Elet to

Abomey Abomey is the capital of the Zou Department of Benin. The commune of Abomey covers an area of 142 square kilometres and, as of 2012, had a population of 90,195 people. Abomey houses the Royal Palaces of Abomey, a collection of small traditional ...

in order to negotiate with King

Agaja Agaja (also spelled Agadja and also known as Trudo Agaja or Trudo Audati) was a king of the Kingdom of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, who ruled from 1718 until 1740. He came to the throne after his brother King Akaba. During his reign, Dahomey e ...

. Although initially the expedition seemed successful, in the end the relationship with Dahomey proved to be damaged beyond repair. Out of frustration with the situation in Dahomey, Pranger petitioned the Colonial Council to accept his letter of resignation on 3 May 1733, and on 13 March 1734, his successor Antonius van Overbeke was installed by the council. In June 1735, Pranger left the Gold Coast on a

slave ship Slave ships were large cargo ships specially built or converted from the 17th to the 19th century for transporting slaves. Such ships were also known as "Guineamen" because the trade involved human trafficking to and from the Guinea coast ...

headed for Surinam. As he fell ill during the voyage, he only departed Surinam in the spring of 1736. Pranger eventually arrived in the Dutch Republic on 15 June 1736.

Later life and death

Almost immediately after his return to the Dutch Republic, on 5 July 1736, he married Elisabeth Oloff, who died a little more than three years later, on 5 December 1739. Pranger remarried to Machteld Muilman on 14 September 1745. Pranger had become wealthy man due to his service in the Gold Coast. During his retirement in the Dutch Republic, Pranger purchased a

canal house A canal house ( nl, grachtenpand) is a (usually old) house overlooking a canal. These houses are often slim, high and deep. Canal houses usually had a basement and a loft and attic where trade goods could be stored. A special beam or pulley in ...

on the

Singel The Singel is one of the canals of Amsterdam. The Singel encircled Amsterdam in the Middle Ages, serving as a moat around the city until 1585, when Amsterdam expanded beyond the Singel. The canal runs from the IJ (Amsterdam), IJ bay, near the ...

canal in Amsterdam, and a country house outside of the city. He employed four

domestic workers A domestic worker or domestic servant is a person who works within the scope of a residence. The term "domestic service" applies to the equivalent occupational category. In traditional English contexts, such a person was said to be "in service ...

s and owned three horses. Pranger died in Amsterdam on 13 April 1773.

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pranger, Jan 1700 births 1773 deaths Businesspeople from Amsterdam Colonial governors of the Dutch Gold Coast Dutch slave owners Dutch slave traders Dutch West India Company people from Amsterdam