Anomabu Fort - Ghana

Anomabu Fort Description

When George Cannon arrived on the Gold Coast on the Eliza, Anomabu was the main market for English ships for slaves, providing several thousand slaves a year. The Eliza purchased more slaves at Anomabu than Cape Coast Castle or any other destination. Anomabu was a fort (the “Fort”) owned by the Company of Merchants Trading to Africa (“CMTA”) located ten miles east of Cape Coast Castle in modern day Ghana. It was officially known as Fort William, after King William IV of Great Britain, and often referred to as “Annamaboe fort.” 

Russ Cannon walking toward the entrance to Anomabu Fort. We visited Ghana in May 2014. Russ, my first cousin, and his wife Shelley, were working as LDS missionaries in Accra. They took several days off to drive us along the Gold Coast and visit the slave forts with us.

The Fort was set back a little further from the ocean than Cape Coast Castle, but it too had a rocky and dangerous beach with a heavy surf and visiting ships had to anchor far offshore in the roads. 

The Fort had a 600 to 700 foot square perimeter with diamond-shaped bastions at each corner and a three story main building. It was constructed from two million red bricks specially shipped from England. Its ramparts held 50 mounted guns (cannons), including six 24 pounders, the largest on the Gold Coast, supported by a gunpowder magazine in the northwest bastion. 

Access to the Fort was through a small gate on the seaward side and a small gate on the inland side. It had apartments for the governor and a few officers, a hall for a small military garrison and house slaves, storerooms for trade goods, corn and water, and a prison in the northeast bastion called the “slave hole,” even though it was above ground, that could hold several hundred slaves. The prison, like the one at Cape Coast Castle, was a series of tall vaults, divided into narrow compartments, with small grills high above stone floors to let in air and light. 

Just outside the walls of the Fort was the village of Anomabu, the most important Fante town on the Gold Coast with 3,000 to 4,000 residents.[1] 

Anomabu was divided into Fishing Town, or Upper Town, to the west of the Fort, and Pynin Town (Pynin was a term associated with elders of senior members of society), or Lower Town, to the east of the Fort. Most of the Anomabu townspeople were involved in the slave trade in occupations such as linguists, gold takers, farmers, market sellers, slave traders, bomboys, canoemen, craftsmen, artisons or laborers. Anomabu means “bird rocks,” from the nearby stones on the beach which were considered sacred. Gods resided there as well as at Nananom Mpow, located two miles from the beach in the hills behind Anomabu, where the chief oracle resided. 

Arrival at Anomabu

When a ship arrived in the road at Anomabu, it fired a salute to alert the caboceer that it was ready to trade. The caboceer sent pynins or elders on board the ship to receive customs payment before the ship could trade. After the payments were made, the ship fired several salutes and hoisted its ensign to show that it was ready to trade. British ships used a red flag with the Union flag in the canton  (upper left quarter) which it flew from the stern (back).^[1]

 The Caboceer

John Corrantee was the most important caboceer in the 18^th century in Anomabu. His African name was Eno Baisee Kurrentsi. He was a merchant as well, trading European goods to the interior and slaves from the interior to the coast. He lavishly entertained slave ship captains in his compound and invited them to stay overnight where he provided them with sexual partners. Corrantee’s home was a fortress-like two-story building built by the Dutch in the early 17^th century. It still stands and is known as the “Dutch Lodge” or “Omanhen’s Palace.” He had command of the bendefoes, the Anomabu militia, the largest fighting force in the Fante Confederacy as Anomabu was the largest town in the Fante confederacy. He could use the bendefoes against the Fort if needed. He was also responsible for keeping the trading paths to the interior open, which included negotiating with nations through which it passed and clearing the fast growing tropical plants which obstructed it. Succession of the caboceer was usually matrilineal, the nephew, or sister’s son, rather than the eldest son. He spent time at Cape Coast Castle as a pawn when he was young which helped him to learn trading and English customs.^[2] George Quasah was the heir of John Corrantee.^[3] However, Corrantee was succeeded by a relative, not one of his sons, Amoony Coomah, who was initially called the “principal caboceer,” but was eventually called “King of Fantee.” Amoony Coomah is the caboceer that the Eliza and George Cannon dealt with (he died in 1801, years after George Cannon would have had contact with him on the Gold Coast).^[4]

 Gold-takers

All slave transactions took place through a Fante gold-taker who acted as agent and broker for every sale. Even Anomabu Fort had its own gold-taker, who worked for the CMTA. The gold-taker knew the local languages, the trade language (a combination of European, particularly Portuguese, words and African vocabulary) and European languages. He brought brokers and slaves to the ships and judged the quality of gold that changed hands. He took a commission, a percentage, on every transaction, whether the seller was African or European. He facilitated almost all of the slave transactions and had as much contact with Europeans traders as any other person. It took great skill: understanding of metallurgy, languages, calculating the values of goods and men, maintaining connections with traders in the interior, fostering good relations with European traders while keeping their own profits high and enabled the best of them to live lives of wealth and comfort. Inland traders often lodged with the gold-taker. If inland traders sold ivory, the gold-taker took a commission on that. If a merchant sold goods to the inland trader, like cloth, gunpowder or weapons, he took a commission on that. The captain had to employ a gold-taker and he hired the first gold-taker to board the ship, according to custom. The gold taker received an immediate payment of cloth, called the “sea-cloths.” If the captain came back to Anomabu, the same gold-taker was employed again. The gold-takers assistants received a monthly payment and subsistence while on board the ship. Either the gold-taker or one of his assistants stayed on board the ship while it was in the Road and acted as a scouting agent to bring brokers and their slaves on board.^[5] Gold-takers went to the ships in five hand canoes, with assistants who shielded them from the sun with umbrellas. The gold taker traditionally had a shaved head with a small patch of hair on the side from which hung a gold ornament. He had aggry beads around his wrists, heavy gold manillas (horse-shoe shaped armlets) in the form of snakes, and a string of golden ornaments around each ankle, shaped like little bells, or weapons. He also had thick gold rings on his fingers. He had leather sandals of various colors with a strap having a tuft of many-colored silks and a native cotton Roman-like toga, striped blue, white and red, with a lower edge fringe of cowries. The captain showed the gold-taker his merchandise and they shared a few drams before trading. Gold-takers gave the Europeans nicknames according to personal characteristics or vices, such as red head, long chin, don’t spit upon deck, big, long fellow, hypocrite, avaricious man, sly old fellow, or a little more.^[6]

 Canoemen

In 1790 there were 800 to 1,000 men employed as canoemen on the Gold Coast. Some were enslaved to the coastal forts, but most were free. Hugh Crow described a canoeman with certificates from other European captains testifying to his good character and hard work. The canoemen often spoke English. They often also journeyed part-way down the coast on the ships. Canoemen from Cape Coast Castle were “indispensable” to the slave trade between the ports of Ouidah and Lagos because the Africans native to the region ‘never passed the heavy surf.’” The canoemen would go close to the breakers where they “laid still and watched for a smooth, and then push’d forward with all their force, paddling the canoe forward or backward… often lying between the breakers” then “paddled with all their might towards the shore.” John McLeod described the canoemen as almost amphibious, with great skill in swimming and diving. The men sang or shouted a song as they went about the dangerous task of landing. Samuel Robinson, in 1800, described being perched on a puncheon of rum, or a bale of goods, while twelve naked canoemen were driving the canoe along like a weaver’s shuttle, keeping time with their paddles to a chant struck up by the steersman, in which, at intervals, all hands would join. He, like many seamen, could not swim, and feared the landing as the canoe could overturn in the breakers approaching the beach.^[7] Canoes were made from the silk-cotton tree. It was soft and easily hollowed out with an iron chisel when it was green and hard. When dry it was hard and light as a cork. 

Canoes being carved from wood we saw at Anomabu. 

Canoes were measured by the number of rowers they held. They were from 3 to 21 hands. Smaller canoes were for fishing and the slave boats generally hired 7 to 15 hand canoes. The larger canoes were more easily over-turned.^[8]

 Africans as Slaves and Slave Sellers

The Fante, or “Fantees” as referred to by Captain Hugh Crow, a contemporary of George Cannon, were a confederation of tribes along the Gold Coast, and immediately inland. Abra (also Abora, Abrah and Abura), the Fante political capital, was in the interior on the main trade route between Kumase and Anomabu. The Fante were heavily involved in the European slave trade. Many of them spoke English, were familiar with ships and trade, and operated from a position of power. The forts were a great source of wealth to the African elites and were the conduit through which African slaves left Africa and European goods arrived.  The English paid a ground rent to the Fante and believed the rent gave them an exclusive right to trade at Anomabu. The Fante, on the other hand, exerted their own power and claimed their right to trade with whomsoever they wished. It was not a situation of the English imposing their will on the Africans. Both the Africans and English had roughly equal power and the Africans often had the upper hand. For example, Anomabu had the least pure gold on the Gold Coast, but the Fante insisted the English take their cracra money. They also retained the right to set the price of slaves and demand more liberal terms of trade through pawning. To get concessions from the English, the Fante would shut down trade, block the Fort and humiliate the English chiefs of the Fort. If the English didn’t comply, trade suffered.^[9][10] The Asante, referred to by Captain Hugh Crow as “Ashantees,” a confederation of tribes further inland, were a warrior people. When they conquered new territories, the newly subjected people had to pay tribute in the form of slaves. The wars were waged for territorial expansion, not slave acquisition, but slaves were the currency for purchasing supplies of guns, powder and shot that could only be obtained from Europeans on the coast. The Fante and the Asante competed with each other over the slave market. The Fante tried to protect the coastal slave market for themselves. They forged alliances with the nations between the coast and the Asante. The Asante and other nations that wanted to sell slaves  to Europeans on the coast brought them to markets on the borders of the Fante country where Fante brokers acquired them for resale, preventing the Asante from making their own trade connections with Europeans and forcing the Asante to use them as middlemen. The Asante had their own slave markets about 150 miles inland, about 25 miles further inland than the Asante capital of Kumase (Coomassie). There was a path from Kumase to Anomabu that required 11 stops, with Asante inspectors to help keep the paths open to facilitate trade, as well as a toll collector to collect payment from the African slave merchants. Slaves obtained from either further inland, up to about 200 miles, were Asante and slaves obtained even further inland by non-Asantes, were brought to Asante markets for sale. Some inland traders did bring slaves to the coast for sale, as well as other goods, such as elephant tusk ivory. Inland traders also purchased goods on the coast for sale to the people inland. Tensions between the Fante and their neighbors sometimes closed the trading paths and trading on the coast would shut down. Further, if African traders did not get the English goods they wanted immediately, they traded with other European nations. Brokers wanted to sell the slaves as soon as possible to avoid the expense of feeding them and reduce the risk of mortality.^[11] About 25% of the slaves sold at Anomabu were Fante. An individual Fante might be enslaved for an unpaid debt, or after conviction for a crime such as theft, adultery or witchcraft. Fante slave traders also kidnapped Fante children who brought them on board and sold them to ships during the night just as the ships were getting ready to leave.^[12] The remaining 75% of slaves sold in Anomabu were brought in from the interior by the Asante, as far as 400 to 500 miles. The slave ship captains and officers of the castles and forts did not care about the origins of the slaves they purchased. Even though there were often large differences in the language and culture of slaves at a particular port, or a regional area of ports, all of the slaves were identified as slaves of that port or region. Captain Hugh Crow considered the Fantees and the Ashantees to be of “one nation.” Slaves obtained anywhere along the Gold Coast were often called Cormantines or Cormantees. This was the Anglicized name for the town of Kormantine, near Anomabu, where the Dutch Fort Amsterdam was located. Cormantees were considered the physically strongest and hardest working slaves brought from Africa, good for the difficult working conditions in the West Indies. Although Cormantees were considered rebellious, they sold for a premium in the Caribbean. The triangular voyage from England to the Gold Coast, then back to England, would generally take 15 to 18 months, five to eight months longer than a triangular voyage to the Nigerian Coast (Bonny) which was further away from the Caribbean. The difference in time was because it took longer to obtain slaves along the Gold Coast. The premium price for the Cormantees was one of the reasons the extra time was deemed worthwhile.^[13] Planters in the Americas believed that Gold Coast slaves were less prone to suicide, less prone to running away, and larger and physically stronger than slaves from other regions of Africa.^[14] Men, including male children, made up a majority of Anomabu slave cargoes, two-thirds was one estimate I found. Women, including female children, were a minority, about one-third. However, the actual varied quite a bit depending on the year and circumstances.

 Other African and British Trade Products

Palm oil was a major local product. It came from nuts of palm trees that grew wild along the coast. However, it fermented very quickly. It was really good for about two hours after extraction, then it turned sour. After being in the sun it fermented. The oil was used to season meat, as a yeast for making bread, for lighting, and to oil leather and metal. If leather was not oiled daily, it would smell of mold after two days. If keys or steel plates or padlocks were not oiled regularly, they rusted. It was also rubbed on slaves to make them look better.^[i] The Portuguese introduced citrus fruits, rice and sugarcane to the Gold Coast from their possessions in the Far East and maize, tobacco, pineapple, cassava and other fruits and plants from the Americas. Maize began to supplement millet and sorghum, the traditional grain crops in the region. They grew slowly and needed a long dry season and lots of sunlight. Yams also grew slowly and were labor intensive. Two crops of maize could be grown in a single season and it became the chief grain crop by the 18^th century. Anomabu became the primary source of maize on the Gold Coast, even before it became a major source of slaves.^[15] Because of maize, which required the clearing of forests for land, iron bars were a trade commodity often needed at Anomabu. Africans used the iron to craft hoes, axes, knives and saws for clearing forests. Cutlasses were another needed commodity. They were not only used as weapons, but as machetes, chopping knives and billhooks.^[16] An English trader might give a Fante trader goods to be used to obtain slaves at the inland slave markets where the goods could be exchanged for slaves. Trade goods might include cloth, liquor, metal wares, beads, or weapons. The Fante trader would leave a child or some other relation as security for the debt, known as a pawn. Pawns could spend weeks or months on a ship or in the fort. They often learned English and got insights into English culture that helped their fathers and their own educations. When slaves were brought the pawn was released. If the Fante trader was not able to pay the debt, the pawn was taken to the West Indies and sold as a slave.^[17]

 The Conduct of Purchase and Sale

The ships were busy as Fante traders boarded to sell slaves. Sons of traders lived on board as pawns. Peddlers circled the ships in their canoes selling fresh food, like plantains, yams, limes, eggs, greens, ducks, poultry and sheep. At Anomabu, the peddlars first offered their goods to the ships before the Fort, often because the peddlers were in debt to the Fort and did not want to have their debts deducted. Sailers and captains moved back and forth from the ship to the town and between ships.^[18] Slaves were purchased by captains, through gold-takers, from the Fort, from British traders on-shore, by Fante merchants, by bush traders with one slave to sell, by brokers from the interior with coffles of slaves and by Fante merchants who brought them from inland markets. The fort usually kept some slaves on hand for immediate sale, but there might be 12 to 20 ships in the roads competing for slaves, which drove prices up. There were rarely sufficient slaves on hand to meet demand. Skill and experience were needed to be successful as the price was negotiated between the parties. There was a substantial difference in price between slaves bought from the forts and those purchased directly from the Fante, although it was more time consuming and difficult to do the latter. From 1783 to 1787, the price was about £15.6. In the 1800s, the price rose to about £33.2. The rule of thumb was that slaves were sold for about double their African cost in the West Indies.^[19] African traders tried to make their slaves look as healthy as possible, rubbing them with palm oil, and shaving them closely to hide gray hairs. Captains and surgeons checked their teeth, limbs and sexual organs for evidence of venereal disease. Captains refused about one of every eight or ten slaves.^[20]

 A Local British Trader

Richard Brew was Irish and a British merchant who settled permanently on the Gold Coast. He built a house in Anomabu known as “Castle Brew” which still stands today and is known as “aban kakraba” or “Little Fort.” It was built at the same time as Anomabu Fort, by the same European and Fante craftsmen. It stands at the fort’s northwest corner and was intended to awe the Fante, the British in the fort and the European traders. It was Georgian British Palladian, built of brick and stone, with arches, arcades and a black and white marble walk that led to the rear courtyard. It had a double staircase that led up to the veranda. He provided a stopping place for ship captains and lavish hospitality to encourage ship captains to deal with him. He understood Fante politics and culture and married one of John Corrantee’s daughters, Effua Ansah, to ally himself with the caboceer. Effua bore him two daughters, Eleanor and Amba. Brew also had two sons, from a prior country marriage. One was named Richard, after his father, and the other, Henry, known as Harry. They were sent to England to be educated. Richard Brew died on August 5, 1776 and Amoony Coomah organized his funeral as chief caboceer. Harry moved to Cape Coast Castle where he became a linguist and writer beginning in 1792. He became the best interpreter on the coast and an important link between Cape Coast and Amoony Coomah in Anomabu.^[21] I don’t know who occupied Castle Brew at the time George Cannon was there.

Illegal Activity of the Overseers

Richard Miles, governor at Anomabu, used the firm of Ross & Mill to facilitate his own illegal trade in slaves. The firm advanced Miles funds to engage in the trade. Miles shipped the slaves in another name, that of Gilbert Petrie, consigned them to selected slave dealers in Grenada and directed the slave dealers to remit the proceeds in Bills of exchange at the shortest date to Ross & Mill on the account of Gilbert Petrie.^[22] Miles and other officials in the forts of Britain and other countries cooperated with each other to try and monopolize the slave trade on the Gold Coast. They essentially used the forts as their own private trading houses. They used the forts to house their own slaves to the exclusion of others. The governors used fort employees to act as traders on their behalf, sold slaves to the Dutch contrary to law, operated “floating factories,” ships that could move from one trading post to another, and governors traded with each other. They used their connections on the ground to keep others out of the trade, denied British traders canoes, canoemen, wood and water. Slaves sold from the Forts often cost more than those sold by African traders outside the forts. They often sold for about an ounce and a half of gold above what was charged by African traders. British ship captains were willing to pay the higher price because of the long delay in buying slaves in small lots from African traders. Trading only with African traders could add months to the length of a voyage which added costs to the voyage and increased the odds of slave deaths along the coast. This resulted in a decrease in the number of ships trading on the Gold Coast and in the number of slaves exported from the region. The governors sold slaves to the general of the Dutch fort at Elmina for Brazilian tobacco, which was popular with the Africans. They claimed they needed the tobacco to pay the natives for various expenses related to the fort, but only a fraction of it went for that purpose, most was used to purchase slaves. The governors also advanced goods on their own account to pay for furnishing the forts and other matters. They purchased the items with trade goods they had purchased cheaply from British captains, marked the goods up, then repaid themselves with the very best trade goods sent out by the CMTA in the annual supply ship. For example, they might initially pay with coarse cloth and get repaid in India silks. The governors would pay the garrison with rum they purchased for a schilling per gallon from the rum men of Rhode Island, then billed the CMTA six schillings per gallon. They got goods sent out in CMTA ships free of any freight charges, they made use of CMTA canoes for their own private trade, they had the first chance to buy slaves. Then, if there were disputes, the forts would not back the British slave traders because they did not want to have their own falling out with the African traders. The governors had no incentive to open the paths to the interior to increase the supply of slaves as that increase would go to private traders rather than through the forts. The governors sent small boats to pick up slaves from areas outside the Gold Coast to make up for shortfalls in slaves. Audits showed that governors used three different rates of exchange in keeping their books and up to 20% of the money annually sent to Africa went in to the governors’ pockets.^[23]

 African Costs

The highest official of the Fante was known as the Obrafo or Braffo. The CMTA for Anomabu Fort paid a ground rent to the Obrafo, but the Obrafo exercised little direct power over the independent Fante towns, including Anomabu, that were each ruled by a chief or caboceer. Private traders paid an annual custom or rent of alcohol to the caboceer of Anomabu and the caboceer distributed it among the residents of Anomabu.^[24] As mentioned earlier, each ship had to pay custom to the caboceer on arrival. Anomabu charged the highest custom on the Gold Coast. In 1781, every ship had to pay £97 in trade goods or £47 sterling. In addition, each ship paid a per slave custom to the caboceer. At Anomabu this averaged about £2.4 per slave, both male and female. Finally, when the ship had all of its slaves, the gold-taker got a commission of one ackey of gold (1/16^th of an ounce) per slave sold at Anomabu.^[25]

 Leaving Anomabu

The Asante, from the interior were more quiet and were usually not put in irons (or fetters). The Fante were almost always chained. So usually less than half the cargo was in fetters at once. When in irons, two were usually chained together, the right leg of one to the left leg of the other. Those deemed more dangerous were shackled by the hand as well.^[26] It took six to eight weeks to get ready to leave Anomabu. When a ship was ready to leave the Roads, it gave warning of its intent to leave. It loosed the topsail, hoisted the ensign and fired a gun. It did this for three to five weeks. Those who had accounts would come aboard and settle with the captain. This could take time as people might dispute their payments. They would also provision the ship. The usual time of departure was 2:00 a.m. when there was a land wind. It also made it more difficult for slaves to realize they were leaving for good, as that sometimes provoked rebellions.^[27]

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[1] Negroes are Masters, p. 123, 139-140

[2] Negroes are Masters, p. 26, 35-39, 42, 62, 245

[3] Negroes are Masters, p. 65

[4] Negroes are Masters, pp. 66-67, 119

[5] Negroes are Masters, pp. 146-149, 154, 179

[6] Negroes are Masters, p. 149, 153

[7] Slave Ship Sailors, pp. 147-149.

[8] Negroes are Masters, p. 143

[9] Rebecca Shumway, The Fante and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, p. 120

[10] Negroes are Masters, pp. 17-19, 21

[11] Negroes are Masters, p. 53, 122-124, 126, 129, 130-133, 135, 138

[12] Negroes are Masters, p. 41

[13] Door of No Return, pp. 181-182, 192, 200-201, 208-211; Saltwater Slavery, pp. 166-167, 241-242, n. 36; Slave Ship, pp. 100-101; Crow Memoirs, p. 187.

[14] Negroes are Masters, p. 164

[15] Negroes are Masters, p. 9, 12, 13, 16

[16] Negroes are Masters, p. 13

[17] Negroes are Masters, p. 28

[18] Negroes are Masters, p. 150

[19] Door of No Return, pp. 202-205; Negroes are Masters, p. 140, 142.

[20] Negroes are Masters, p. 154

[21] Negroes are Masters, pp. 29, 33-34, 68-69, 76-77, 80, 82, 85-86, 116, 119-120, 196, 209, 214-215, 245

[22] Negroes are Masters, p. 105

[23] Negroes are Masters, pp. 70-71, 99, 101, 103, 113-114

[24] Negroes are Masters, p. 212

[25] Door of No Return, p. 202.

[26] Negroes are Masters, p. 156, 177

[27] Negroes are Masters, pp. 158-159

[i] Door of No Return, pp. 48-51, 76-77; Saltwater Slavery, p. 93; Wikipedia – “Accra”.

[1]Saltwater Slavery, p. 37; Human Capital, p. 88, n. 7; Door of No Return, pp. 181-182, 184-186 and 189.