Ussher Fort is a fort 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, , ...

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 ...

. It was built by the Dutch in 1649 as Fort Crèvecœur, and is a day's march from

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 ...

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 ownership ...

(Fort Christiansborg; Danish, 1652) 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 James Fort and Dutch Ussher Fort on the Gulf of Guinea coast. These distric ...

( 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: ''Nederlandse Bezittingen ter Kuste van Guinea'') was a portion of contemporary Ghana that was gradually colonized by the Dutch, beginning in 1612. ...

. The

Anglo-Dutch Gold Coast Treaty (1867) The Anglo-Dutch Gold Coast Treaty of 1867 redistributed forts along the Dutch and British Gold Coasts in order to concentrate the parties' areas of influence. All forts to the east of Fort Elmina were adopted by Britain, and all forts to the we ...

, 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 is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Heritage List A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNES ...

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 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 ...

and then enlarged in 1649 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 ( ...

. It was named after Fort Crèvecœur in

's-Hertogenbosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a city and municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 157,486. It is the capital of the province of North Brabant and its fourth largest by population. The city is south of th ...

in 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 ...

, 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-Duc''Markham 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. ...

. 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 ( sv, Carolusborg) is one of about forty "slave castles", or large commercial forts, built on the Gold Coast of West Africa (now Ghana) by European traders. It was originally a Portuguese "feitoria" or trading post, established ...

, built 150 kilometers further west. Still, they brought their owners significant revenue. At the end of 1781 Captain

Thomas Shirley Sir Thomas Shirley (1564 – c. 1634) was an English soldier, adventurer and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1584 and 1622. His financial difficulties drove him into privateering which culminated in his captur ...

in the frigate , together with the

sloop-of-war In the 18th century and most of the 19th, a sloop-of-war in the Royal Navy was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. The rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above; thus, the term ''sloop-of-war'' enc ...

''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 was a fort on the southern tip of Manhattan at the confluence of the Hudson and East rivers. It was the administrative headquarters for the Dutch and then English/British rule of the colony of New Netherland and subsequently the ...

- 32 guns),

Apam Apam is a coastal town and capital of Gomoa West District in the Central Region of Ghana, located approximately 45 kilometers east of the Central Region capital, Cape Coast. Apam is the site of Fort Lijdzaamheid or Fort Patience, a Dutch-built f ...

(

Fort Lijdzaamheid Fort Patience (Dutch: ''Fort Lijdzaamheid'', or, in 17th-century spelling, ''Fort Leydsaemheyt'') is a Dutch-built fort located in the township of Apam, in the Central Region of Ghana. Originally built in 1697, it served as a defensive fortificati ...

or Fort Patience - 22 guns),

Senya Beraku Senya Beraku is a residential area in the Awutu Senya District of the Central Region of Ghana. Senya Beraku is the site of Fort Good Hope Fort Good Hope (formerly ''Fort Hope'', ''Fort Charles'', also now known as the ''Charter Community of K ...

(Berricoe, Berku, Fort Barracco or

Fort Goede Hoop 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'' ...

- 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. 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 Herbert Taylor John Ussher (22 April 1836 – 2 December 1880) was a British colonial administrator who became Governor of the Gold Coast (now Ghana). In private life, he was a keen naturalist and wrote ''"Notes on the ornithology of the Gold Coa ...

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 executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

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

Notes, citations and references

Notes Citations References * * Kropp Dakubu, Mary Esther (1997). ''Korle Meets the Sea: a sociolinguistic history of Accra''. * Soulillou, Jacques and Françoise Doutreuwe Salvaing (1993) ''Rives coloniales: architectures, de Saint-Louis à Douala''. (Paris: Editions de l'Orstom). * {{Gold Coast Buildings and structures completed in 1649 History of Ghana Castles in Ghana Dutch Gold Coast 1649 establishments in the Dutch Empire Forts in Ghana African slave trade