Ussher Fort is a fort in

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 ...

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 Dutch in 1649 as Fort Crèvecœur, and is two days' march from

Elmina Elmina ( Fante: ''Edina'') is a town and the capital of the Komenda/Edina/Eguafo/Abirem District on the south coast of Ghana in the Central Region. It is situated on a bay on the Atlantic Ocean, west of Cape Coast.Straight line distances ...

and to the east of Accra on a rocky point between two lagoons. It was one of three forts that Europeans built in the region during the middle of the 17th century.The other two were

Osu Castle Osu Castle (also known as Fort Christiansborg or the Castle) is a castle located in Osu, Ghana, on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea in Africa. A substantial fort was built by Denmark-Norway in the 1660s; thereafter, the fort changed owners ...

(Fort Christiansborg; Danish, 1659) and

Jamestown, Ghana Located directly east of the Korle Lagoon, Jamestown and Usshertown are the oldest districts of Accra, Ghana and emerged as communities around the 17th century British Gold Coast, British Fort James (Ghana), James Fort and Dutch Gold Coast, Dutch ...

( Fort James; British, 1673). Fort Crèvecœur was 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 ...

. The Anglo-Dutch Gold Coast Treaty (1867), which defined areas of influence on the Gold Coast, transferred it to the British in 1868. Because of its significance in the history of European colonial trade and exploitation in Africa, 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 several other castles and forts in Ghana).

History

Negotiations to build a Dutch fort on the site began in 1610, but did not bear fruit until much later. Fort Crèvecœur was built in 1642 as a simple

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or 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. Th ...

and then enlarged in 1649 by 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 ...

. It was named after Fort Crèvecœur in

's-Hertogenbosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 160,783. It is the capital of ...

in the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

, which had played a crucial role in the

Siege of 's-Hertogenbosch The siege of 's-Hertogenbosch also known as the siege of Bois-Le-DucMarkham pp. 435-38 was an action in 1629, during the Eighty Years' War and the Anglo–Spanish War in which a Dutch and English army captured the city of 's-Hertogenbosch.Knigh ...

. One of the Dutch representatives, Henry Caerlof, developed good relations with the Dey of Fetu, who gave Caerlof permission to build Osu Castle in 1652 for the Swedish Africa company. Fort Crèvecœur and Fort James were neither as imposing nor as important from the political point of view as Elmina or

Cape Coast Castle Cape Coast Castle () is one of about forty slave fort, "slave castles", or large commercial forts, built on the Gold Coast (region), Gold Coast of West Africa (now Ghana) by European traders. It was originally a Portuguese "feitoria" or Factory ( ...

, built 150 kilometers further west. Still, they brought their owners significant revenue. At the end of 1781 Captain Thomas Shirley in the frigate , together with 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 for the

with a convoy consisting of a few merchant-vessels and transports. Britain was at war with the

and Shirley launched an unsuccessful attack on 17 February on the Dutch outpost at

, which the Dutch repulsed four days later. ''Leander '' and Shirley then went on to capture the small Dutch forts at Mouri ( Fort Nassau - 20 guns), Kormantine (Courmantyne or

Fort Amsterdam Fort Amsterdam, (later, Fort George among other names) was a fortification on the southern tip of Manhattan Island at the confluence of the Hudson River, Hudson and East River, East rivers in what is now New York City. The fort and the island ...

- 32 guns), Apam ( Fort Lijdzaamheid or Fort Patience - 22 guns), Senya Beraku (Berricoe, Berku, Fort Barracco or Fort Goede Hoop - 18 guns), and

(Fort Crèvecœur - 32 guns). Shirley garrisoned those facilities with personnel from

. Fort Crèvecoeur was completely destroyed, and rebuilt in 1839 by Dutch master of works

Hubertus Varlet Hubertus Varlet (5 December 1810 – 4 October 1853) was a Dutch architect and colonial administrator, who served on the Dutch Gold Coast. In his capacity as master of works and stores, he rebuilt Ussher Fort, Fort Crèvecoeur in Accra in 1839. Fol ...

. Fort Crèvecœur, which lies to the east of the present port, became known in time as Ussher Fort in honour of the then Administrator of the Gold Coast, Herbert Taylor Ussher.

Currently

In all, Europeans built 27 forts on the coast of Ghana. The Dutch captured two forts from the Portuguese, and themselves built nine others. The British built ten, all before 1660. Today, only 11 of these forts are in good shape. Ussher Fort is currently being restored with funds from the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

and

. The purpose is to convert it to a museum and International Documentation Centre. The fort opening hours are 9:00am to 4:30pm from Mondays to Saturdays including public holidays. Chale Wote is hosted virtually in the premises of the fort.

Gallery

File:Ussher Fort 2.jpg, Ussher Fort built in 1649 and located in Ussher Town in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana, File:One of the entrances of Ussher Fort at Jamestown, Ghana.jpg, One of the entrances of Ussher Fort at Jamestown File:Ussher Fort, Ghana 3.jpg, Ussher Fort at Jamestown File:Ussher Fort, Ghana 4.jpg, Ussher Fort at Jamestown File:Ussher Fort, Ghana 2.jpg, Ussher Fort at Jamestown File:Ussher Fort 13.jpg, Ussher Fort in Accra, Ghana File:Ussher Fort 30.jpg, Ussher Fort in Accra, Ghana File:Ussher Fort 16.jpg, Ussher Fort in Accra, Ghana File:Ussher Fort 22.jpg, Ussher Fort File:Ussher Fort 26.jpg, Ussher Fort File:Ussher Fort 10.jpg, Ussher Fort File:Ussher Fort 19.jpg, Ussher Fort File:Ussher Fort 21.jpg, Ussher Fort at Ghana File:Ussher Fort 27.jpg, Ussher Fort at Ghana File:Ussher Fort 24.jpg, Ussher Fort at Ghana File:Ussher Fort 8.jpg, Ussher Fort at Ghana

Notes, citations and references

Notes Citations References

* * * * {{Gold Coast Buildings and structures completed in 1649 Castles in Ghana Dutch Gold Coast 1649 establishments in the Dutch Empire Forts in Ghana Slave forts