Fort Amsterdam is a former slave fort in Abandze, Central region,

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

. It was built by the English between 1638 and 1645 as Fort Cormantin or Fort Courmantyne, and was captured by admiral

Michiel de Ruyter Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter (; 24 March 1607 – 29 April 1676) was a Dutch States Navy officer. His achievements with the Dutch navy during the Anglo-Dutch Wars earned him the reputation as one of the most skilled naval commanders in ...

of the

Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company () was a Dutch chartered company that was founded in 1621 and went defunct in 1792. Among its founders were Reynier Pauw, Willem Usselincx (1567–1647), and Jessé de Forest (1576–1624). On 3 June 1621, it was gra ...

in 1665, in retaliation for the capture of several Dutch forts by the English Admiral Holmes in 1664. It was subsequently made part of the

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

, and remained part of it until the fort was traded with the British in 1868. The Fort is located at Abandze, on the north-east of Cape Coast in the Mfantseman

District A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

of the Central Region of

. Because of its testimony to European economic and colonial influence in West Africa and its historical importance in the

Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of Slavery in Africa, enslaved African people to the Americas. European slave ships regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Pass ...

, the fort was inscribed on the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage List World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...

in 1979 along with other forts and castles in Ghana.

History

Early in 1782, Captain Thomas Shirley in the 50-gun ship ''Leander'' and the

sloop-of-war During the 18th and 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship of the Royal Navy with a single gun deck that carried up to 18 guns. The rating system of the Royal Navy covered all vessels with 20 or more guns; thus, the term encompassed all u ...

''Alligator'' sailed to the

. This was during the

Fourth Anglo-Dutch War The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War (; 1780–1784) was a conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. The war, contemporary with the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), broke out over British and Dutch disagreements on t ...

in which Britain was at war with

The Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. Shirley captured the small Dutch forts at Moree ( Fort Nassau – 20 guns), Kormantin (Courmantyne – 32 guns), Apam ( Fort Lijdzaamheid or Fort Patience – 22 guns), Senya Beraku ( Fort Goede Hoop – 18 guns), and

Accra Accra (; or ''Gaga''; ; Ewe: Gɛ; ) 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, , had a population of ...

( Fort Crêvecoeur or Ussher Fort – 32 guns). In 1811, the people of Anomabo, who happened to be allies of the British attacked the fort, leaving it in ruins. It was unoccupied from then until its restoration in 1951 by the

Ghana Museums and Monuments Board The Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB) is the government organisation responsible for the historic preservation, preservation of the material cultural heritage of Ghana. It was founded on 5 March 1957, soon after Ghana became independent, b ...

. The town of Abandze has grown around the site of the fort today.

The original structure of Fort Amsterdam

It had a rectangular outline with two

square In geometry, a square is a regular polygon, regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal si ...

and two round

bastions A bastion is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fire from the ...

at the corners. They were linked by curtain walls. There was a central

courtyard A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary a ...

. Arranged around it were a one-storeyed building on the

west West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

side, a two-storeyed building along the

north North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

side and a line of two or three storeyed buildings on the

south South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

side. The curtain and bastion on the

were solidly built, while the others were constructed with an earth filling between two walls of stone laid in mortar. As a result of cracks and disintegration at the time, it was left unoccupied. The

bastion A bastion is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fire from the ...

on the

southeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, Radius, radially arrayed compass directions (or Azimuth#In navigation, azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A ''compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, ...

, which was designed to be hollow, had a grated

ventilation Ventilation may refer to: * Ventilation (physiology), the movement of air between the environment and the lungs via inhalation and exhalation ** Mechanical ventilation, in medicine, using artificial methods to assist breathing *** Respirator, a ma ...

in the roof, and was in addition used as a slave prison. It is believed to have been the first of its kind in the Gold Coast. Slaves taken from this fort were said to have been named

Coromantee Coromantee, Coromantins, Coromanti or Kormantine (derived from the name of the Ghanaian slave fort Fort Amsterdam, Ghana, Fort Kormantine in the Ghanaian town of Kormantse, Central Ghana) is an English-language term for Atlantic slave trade, en ...

Trade

From 1705 to 1716, trade figures at the fort were given as 481 marks of

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

and 149

slaves Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

. There were complaints of little trade at other times as well. This was due to wars and also because the local chief was said to have leased the site to the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

, and not the Dutch. The Dutch had no jurisdiction there, and the Cormantin people blocked their trade routes whenever it suited them, until the former had paid huge sums of money.

Image gallery

File:Fort Amsterdam Front view.jpg, Fort Amsterdam front view File:Ghana, Abandze, Fort Amsterdam (Cormantijn), hoofdingang.jpg, Main gate File:Ghana, Abandze, Fort Amsterdam (Cormantijn).jpg, Fort Amsterdam File:Slave Dungeon in Fort Amsterdam.png, Slave Dungeon in Fort Amsterdam File:Fort Amsterdam in Ghana 26.jpg, Side front view of Fort Amsterdam in Ghana File:Fort Amsterdam in Ghana 9.jpg, Fort Amsterdam, Ghana File:Fort Amsterdam in Ghana 25.jpg, Fort Amsterdam in Ghana File:Fort Amsterdam in Ghana 6.jpg, Fort Amsterdam in Ghana File:Fort Amsterdam in Ghana 27.jpg, Front view of Fort Amsterdam File:Fort Amsterdam in Ghana 14.jpg, Fort Amsterdam in Ghana File:Fort Amsterdam in Ghana 17.jpg, Fort Amsterdam File:Fort Amsterdam in Ghana 15.jpg, Fort Amsterdam File:Sunset at the Fort Amsterdam.jpg, Sunset at the Fort Amsterdam File:Komantin Beach From Fort Amsterdam.jpg, Komantin Beach From Fort Amsterdam File:Canon in Fort Amsterdam.jpg, Canon in Fort Amsterdam File:Open skies in Fort Amsterdam.jpg, Open skies in Fort Amsterdam

References

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Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

Dutch Gold Coast Castles in Ghana Central Region (Ghana) Buildings and structures completed in 1645 1645 establishments in Africa 1645 establishments in the British Empire 17th century in Ghana Slave forts