A slave fort or slave castle was a

fortification A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere' ...

designed to provide an area in which enslaved victims could be imprisoned as well as constituting a significant defendable location in the event of an outside attack. A slave fort was a militarised

factory (trading post) Factory was the common name during the medieval and early modern eras for an entrepôt – which was essentially an early form of free-trade zone or transshipment point. At a factory, local inhabitants could interact with foreign merchants, o ...

which evolved at locations where the slave trade played a significant economic role on the coast of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. These forts were built by organisations from nine European countries, whether by the state or

chartered companies A chartered company is an association with investors or shareholders that is incorporated and granted rights (often exclusive rights) by royal charter (or similar instrument of government) for the purpose of trade, exploration, and/or coloni ...

Portuguese origins

In 1441 Henry the Navigator initiated the Portuguese exploration of the African coast. With the newly designed ship, the

caravel The caravel (Portuguese: , ) is a small maneuverable sailing ship used in the 15th century by the Portuguese to explore along the West African coast and into the Atlantic Ocean. The lateen sails gave it speed and the capacity for sailing win ...

Portuguese explorers were able to sail further south along the coast. However, their exploration was accompanied by repeated kidnapping of particularly Berbers who were enslaved and sold at newly created slave markets in Lisbon.

Nuno Tristão Nuno Tristão was a 15th-century Portuguese explorer and slave trader, active in the early 1440s, traditionally thought to be the first European to reach the region of Guinea (legendarily, as far as Guinea-Bissau, but more recent historians belie ...

and Gonçalo de Sintra explored as far south as the

Bay of Arguin The Bay of Arguin (french: Baie d'Arguin; pt, Baía de Arguim) is a bay on the Atlantic shore of Mauritania and the former mouth of the Tamanrasset River, now a Paleo-river. Geography It is located south of Cap Blanc, north of Cap Timiris. Th ...

, where the Portuguese established a trading post at the island of

Arguin Arguin ( ar, أرغين, pt, Arguim) is an island off the western coast of Mauritania in the Bay of Arguin. It is approximately in size, with extensive and dangerous reefs around it. The island is now part of the Banc d'Arguin National Park. H ...

. Henry ordered the first ''

feitoria Factory was the common name during the medieval and early modern eras for an entrepôt – which was essentially an early form of free-trade zone or transshipment point. At a factory, local inhabitants could interact with foreign merchants, o ...

'' or factory to be built there in 1448, although there are also records that King

Afonso V Afonso V () (15 January 1432 – 28 August 1481), known by the sobriquet the African (), was King of Portugal from 1438 until his death in 1481, with a brief interruption in 1477. His sobriquet refers to his military conquests in Northern Africa ...

also ordered a fort to be built in 1462. Elmina Castle was built in 1482 in present-day

Elmina Elmina, also known as Edina by the local Fante, is a town and the capital of the Komenda/Edina/Eguafo/Abirem District on the south coast of Ghana in the Central Region, situated on a bay on the Atlantic Ocean, west of Cape Coast. Elmina w ...

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

(formerly the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

). It was the first of many slave forts built by Europeans along the coast of

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...

. João II decided to build the fort shortly after coming to the Portuguese throne. He appointed Diogo de Azambuja to fulfill the task, and supplying him with a pre-fabricated fort in kit form, along with 600 men. This enabled the fort to be built as the first European

prefabricated building A prefabricated building, informally a prefab, is a building that is manufactured and constructed using prefabrication. It consists of factory-made components or units that are transported and assembled on-site to form the complete building. Hist ...

in sub-saharan Africa. This proved useful as the indigenous people did not want the Portuguese to build the fort despite Azambuja initial success in some negotiations.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slave fort Fortified settlements Forts