Willem Bosman (12 January 1672 – after 1703) was a merchant in the service of 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 ( ...

, spending most of his time in 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. ...

. Bosman was born in

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

. Although he sailed to the Gold Coast as an

apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

when he was only 16 years of age, he managed to climb the ranks and eventually became 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 ...

: ''opperkoopman''). In 1702 he sailed back to 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 ...

, and little is known of his later life. Bosman is best known for his description of the Gold Coast titled ''Nauwkeurige beschrijving van de Guinese Goud- Tand- en Slavekust'' (An accurate description of the Guinean gold-tooth and Slave Coast) published in 1704. This document remained the most authoritative description of the area for more than a century and provided significant detail of the

Komenda Wars The Komenda Wars were a series of wars from 1694 until 1700 largely between the Dutch West India Company and the English Royal African Company in the Eguafo Kingdom in the present day state of Ghana, over trade rights. The Dutch were trying to ...

in which Bosman took part. He described in detail the functioning of the slave trade and commented of Fida that "markets of men are here kept in the same manner as those of beasts are with us." The book was a major source for Ghanaian historians in the twentieth century and a facsimile of the 1705 English translation was republished in 1907. at the instigation of the colonialist,

Alfred Lewis Jones Sir Alfred Lewis Jones (24 February 1845 – 13 December 1909) was a Welsh ship-owner. Early life Jones was born on 24 February 1845 in Carmarthen, Wales, to Daniel Jones, owner of The Welshman newspaper, and Mary Jean Jones (née Williams), ...

. The

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 ...

ian surname Bossman is thought to originate from the children Bosman had with his black mistresses.

References

External links

*
Nauwkeurige beschryving van de Guinese Goud- Tand- en Slave-kust, enz.
', op archive.org. *
A new and accurate description of the coast of Guinea, divided into the Gold, the Slave, and the Ivory coasts
' at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bosman, Willem 1672 births Year of death missing Sailors on ships of the Dutch West India Company Dutch Gold Coast people Businesspeople from Utrecht (city) 18th-century Dutch businesspeople