A slave fort or slave castle was a

fortification A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Lati ...

designed to provide a defensible area in which enslaved victims would be kept until ships were ready to embark them and forcibly migrate them during 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 ...

. A slave fort was a militarized

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, of ...

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. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. These forts were built by the state or chartered companies from nine European countries.

Portuguese origins

In 1441

Henry the Navigator Princy Henry of Portugal, Duke of Viseu ( Portuguese: ''Infante Dom Henrique''; 4 March 1394 – 13 November 1460), better known as Prince Henry the Navigator (), was a Portuguese prince and a central figure in the early days of the Portuguese ...

initiated the Portuguese exploration of the African coast. With a newly designed ship, the caravel, Portuguese explorers were able to sail further south. Their exploration was accompanied by repeated kidnappings of particularly

Berbers Berbers, or the Berber peoples, also known as Amazigh or Imazighen, are a diverse grouping of distinct ethnic groups indigenous to North Africa who predate the arrival of Arab migrations to the Maghreb, Arabs in the Maghreb. Their main connec ...

who were enslaved and sold at newly created slave markets in Lisbon. Nuno Tristão and Gonçalo de Sintra explored as far south as the Bay of Arguin, where the Portuguese established a trading post on the island of Arguin. Henry ordered the first '' feitoria'' or factory to be built there in 1448, although there are also records that King Afonso V also ordered a fort to be built in 1462. Elmina Castle was built in 1482 in present-day Elmina,

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 ...

(formerly the Gold Coast). It was the first of many slave forts built by Europeans along the coast of

West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...

. João II decided to build the fort shortly after coming to the Portuguese throne. He appointed Diogo de Azambuja to fulfill the task, and supplied 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. Vario ...

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slave fort Fortified settlements Slave forts