Fort Amsterdam (Ghana)
History
Early in 1782, Captain Thomas Shirley in the 50-gun ship Leander and the sloop-of-war Alligator sailed to the Dutch Gold Coast. This was during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War in which Britain was at war with The Netherlands. 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 (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 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 and two round bastions at the corners. They were linked by curtain walls. There was a central courtyard. Arranged around it were a one-storeyed building on the west side, a two-storeyed building along the north side and a line of two or three storeyed buildings on the south side.
The curtain and bastion on the north 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 on the southeast, which was designed to be hollow, had a grated ventilation 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.
Trade
From 1705 to 1716, trade figures at the fort were given as 481 marks of gold and 149 slaves. 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, 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
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Fort Amsterdam front view
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Main gate
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Fort Amsterdam
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Slave Dungeon in Fort Amsterdam
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Side front view of Fort Amsterdam in Ghana
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Fort Amsterdam, Ghana
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Fort Amsterdam in Ghana
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Fort Amsterdam in Ghana
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Front view of Fort Amsterdam
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Fort Amsterdam in Ghana
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Fort Amsterdam
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Fort Amsterdam
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Sunset at the Fort Amsterdam
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Komantin Beach From Fort Amsterdam
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Canon in Fort Amsterdam
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Open skies in Fort Amsterdam
References
- ^ "Ghana Museums & Monuments Board". www.ghanamuseums.org.
- ^ Anquandah, James. (1999). Castles & forts of Ghana. Atalante: Ghana Museums & Monuments Board. ISBN 2951390106. OCLC 41624572.
- ^ "Forts and Castles, Volta, Greater Accra, Central and Western Regions". UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
- ^ Crooks, John Joseph (1973), Records Relating to the Gold Coast Settlements from 1750 to 1874 (London: Taylor & Francis), p. 62. ISBN 978-0-7146-1647-6
- ^ Anquandah, James. (1999). Castles & forts of Ghana. Atalante: Ghana Museums & Monuments Board. ISBN 2951390106. OCLC 41624572.
- ^ Anquandah, James. (1999). Castles & forts of Ghana. Atalante: Ghana Museums & Monuments Board. ISBN 2951390106. OCLC 41624572.
- ^ Anquandah, James. (1999). Castles & forts of Ghana. Atalante: Ghana Museums & Monuments Board. ISBN 2951390106. OCLC 41624572.