Impact of the Slave Trade: Through a Ghanaian Lens (14:46)
Think about the following questions as you watch the video
- What was the society around Cape Coast like before the Atlantic slave trade?
- What does the physical structure of Cape Coast Castle under the British, including its dungeons, tell us about the Atlantic slave trade?
- What were some of the economic impacts of the Atlantic slaving system on the coastal region?
- How did the Atlantic slaving system affect how people lived?
: (Ghanaian music playing)
: My name is Trevor Getz
: and I'm a professor of African history
: at San Francisco State University.
: I'm here at Cape Coast Castle
: in Ghana in West Africa.
: You know, 25 years ago,
: when I first became interested in African history,
: my high school world history text book
: had very little to say about Ghana.
: It was as if there was no information about the place.
: But in fact we know an awful lot about this country,
: and it's Ghanaian historians who help us to understand it
: and its place in world history.
: I'm here to talk to some of those historians
: about the Atlantic slaving system.
: I want to understand what Ghana was like
: before the Atlantic slave trade
: and how the Atlantic slave trade,
: which ripped millions of people from their homes
: and left devastation in its wake,
: changed this country
: and the lasting legacy that it has.
: So, I'm here with Ato Ashun, the regional director
: for the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board.
: - Yeah. - And, where are we?
: ASHUN: Currently, you are at Cape Coast Castle.
: GETZ: Before Europeans arrived in this region, in general,
: what kind of political structures were there?
: ASHUN: Well, you know, before they came,
: we have the chiefs, working together
: with the elders of states.
: They would be today like the president
: and the cabinet ministers, running the system.
: Then we had the heads of the various family units.
: We call them "abusua."
: They are those together with the chiefs
: running the political system of the various places.
: GETZ: So you have an executive, the chiefs,
: and then you have a legislative if you will,
: which is the elders. - Of course.
: GETZ: What was the economic system like here?
: Were people trading, was there commerce,
: were people growing things, was there industry?
: ASHUN: In fact, we we would have
: the, the farming, growing things.
: We would have the commerce.
: And we had fishing, also.
: GETZ: So, a pretty sophisticated commercial system,
: stable states with an executive,
: and a legislative branch.
: And then we have the arrival of Europeans
: and we have the Atlantic slave trade.
: (Ghanaian music playing)
: When did the Atlantic slave trade begin here?
: ASHUN: You will talk about the fact
: that when the Portuguese came over here,
: they came along with it.
: But then, when you talk of the Cape Coast Castle,
: you talk about when the English took over, actually.
: So that was round about 1660, '65, thereabout.
: (Ghanaian music playing)
: GETZ: At that point, is it involved in the slave trade?
: ASHUN: Oh, yes, at that time, they had already started.
: GETZ: And so what would happen
: when British and other European ships come up here
: to purchase people?
: ASHUN: Two different occasions would happen.
: When the merchants would come to buy,
: and when the castle would supply their colonies.
: GETZ: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
: Okay, so there were actually dungeons
: built into this place right from the beginning?
: ASHUN: Absolutely, we have two separate dungeons.
: We have the male's dungeon
: and the female's dungeons.
: We... total we could talk about 1,300 the minimum.
: - People? - People.
: - At one time? - At one time.
: Yes, and in the male's dungeons,
: we have five compartments
: making up the whole dungeon.
: And every compartment had 200 people at a time.
: It is sad to see the dungeon because, you know,
: unlike other places where they were given containers
: where they could defecate into them,
: here in Cape Coast Castle, they create a sort of canals
: in the dungeon that they could do it into them.
: And whenever it rained, the rain would wash these away.
: GETZ: Yeah, I mean, these must be
: terrible, terrible conditions, unimaginable.
: ASHUN: Unimaginable.
: GETZ: But here's what really shocks me.
: - Yeah. - We are sitting above
: the dungeons, essentially.
: The British officers were living above this all the time.
: Can you... I mean, it's unimaginable.
: So for it to be worth it, it must have made
: a lot of money for them? - Of course.
: - Yeah - Of course.
: This was very profitable for the European companies
: involved and such. - Mm-hmm.
: GETZ: How did the Atlantic slave trade
: transform the economic system here?
: ASHUN: Well, so, now human beings
: have become commodities. - Mm-hmm.
: ASHUN: So, those who would dig for gold
: will now go into capturing people.
: Those who would spend time farming are being captured.
: So, it changed the whole dynamics.
: We would start experiencing farming from this end
: because people will start moving deep into the forest,
: running away from the radar of these wicked people.
: Yes, economics changed.
: GETZ: Wow, so, okay, so it sounds like
: three things you're saying... is first of all,
: people are being taken away, so they don't work.
: Second, people who would normally be working
: on productive things like digging for gold
: or growing things are turning to slave trading
: because they have to in order to survive.
: - Right. - And, thirdly,
: people can't live where they would normally live,
: they have to go into the forest.
: ASHUN: Of course. They have to keep moving.
: GETZ: This is a huge transformation.
: ASHUN: Yes. So, leave everything you've done behind
: Because you don't want to be captured.
: (Ghanaian music playing)
: AKOSUA PERBI: It was really a time of insecurity.
: People have to move with security guards and so
: because you dare not move alone.
: You'd always go in bands.
: Because you were not sure what would happen on the way.
: It also was affected the legal system
: in terms of the court system.
: Because where there were fines for various offenses,
: some case would decide that no,
: we are not going to ask you to pay any fine.
: Rather go and become a slave somewhere.
: I heard the case of the king of Komenda in the 1700s,
: who... the brother did something he didn't like.
: And instead of asking the brother pay a fine,
: he asked the brother to be enslaved across the Atlantic.
: Not only the brother, but the wife
: and the children as well, you know.
: And then also, in some areas, like the Akwamu area,
: people resorted to kidnapping a lot.
: (speaking local language)
: And that also affected the traditional system.
: Because kidnapping was not a way of life in Ghana.
: (Ghanaian music playing)
: GETZ: So I've been talking to people mostly along the coast
: about slavery and the Atlantic slaving system,
: and I'm very interested to get a view
: from further in the interior, from this region,
: which you are an expert in and further to the north.
: Well, it affected the Middle Belt
: directly and indirectly.
: Directly in the sense that they wanted European goods
: such as guns, gunpowder, fabrics, and so on.
: And they had to deliver and retain
: whatever the Europeans wanted at a particular time.
: So, initially, it was mainly gold
: and elephant tusk or ivory.
: And they were so positioned
: that they could deliver these commodities.
: And then, over time,
: as the transatlantic slave trade intensified
: and the commodities that were required
: in exchange for European goods,
: desired by the Asante and people in the Middle Belt,
: generally was human beings.
: Because of the plantation agriculture
: that was going on in the New World,
: most of the slaves that were taken out of Asante,
: for example, did not necessarily originate from this region.
: They had to look up north for them.
: (Ghanaian music playing)
: What was the impact of the Atlantic slave trade
: in the north?
: Uh, to the north I would say it was more devastating
: in the sense that, if you remember,
: I said most of the slaves that were sent from the Middle Belt
: did not originate from here.
: They came from the north either as captives
: or they were brought in as tribute
: because parts of the north
: had been conquered by Asante, and as subjects of Asante,
: they had to pay homage and tribute to Asante.
: And this caused people in the north to war amongst themselves.
: And also some of them found the opportunity to trade.
: So if they were able to attack weaker neighbors,
: they would be able to acquire slaves, sell off,
: and get some money out of that.
: What do you think was the impact on that region
: of the removal of so many hundreds of thousands
: or even millions of people?
: First of all, I will say insecurity,
: because one was not too certain when there would be a raid.
: And there are so many stories about villages
: that were attacked, raided, and people taken away.
: And though some of them who found their way to the south
: and became integrated in southern societies,
: you know, tell of how they came to be in the south.
: So you can tell from them that there was a lot of insecurity.
: And definitely, if people are worried,
: trying to protect themselves,
: it's going to also hinder
: their major source of economic activity,
: which was agriculture.
: So, I'll say that in the north
: it must have had more devastating effect.
: What do you think have been the long-term impacts
: of the Atlantic slave trade on Ghanaian society?
: Now people hedge about talking about their roles
: in the transatlantic slave trade.
: It takes a lot of effort
: before people will actually open up to talk about it,
: talking to people who have lost family.
: You know, very often we just think about those
: who were sent away.
: But we do not think about those who were left behind.
: Because those who were sent out belonged to families.
: They had parents, they had siblings,
: some of them had children, and so on.
: And there are memories
: of those who lost loved ones to the trade.
: So that is very often hidden, it doesn't come out in the open.
: GETZ: So we're actually talking about multi-generational trauma.
: Yes. Yes.
: - Yeah, incredible. - Yes.
: Let me make it very simple.
: One simple thing it did
: was to take away our independence
: and bring in dependence.
: So that, you know, we are digging for gold ourselves,
: now when we get the gold,
: we have to bring you the gold dust,
: you bring us the trinkets.
: Now we're not able to have the opportunity
: to develop the system we're already having.
: GETZ: Let me ask you, how did you first learn about
: the impact of the Atlantic slave trade here?
: In my growing stages,
: I never had the opportunity to visit the dungeons...
: - Mm-hmm. - ...that much.
: I could see the castle pass by.
: But when I grew up a little bit,
: that was when I entered for the first time.
: And I had then grown, so I was like...
: that was why I said to you that I was sitting in the dungeons
: crying every morning for about a week or two,
: because, one, I was surprised that it did happen.
: Two, I was again surprised
: that even though I was born around the castle,
: never had the opportunity to, to visit it.
: So, then it was very difficult to take.
: GETZ: So, can you tell me what the Door of No Return is?
: ASHUN: You know, the very last point the African exited
: from the castles to the ships to be taken away,
: that very last point of the exit,
: is what is termed "Door of No Return."
: Because knowing that you will never come back in
: to Africa again.
: What do you think about the fact that tourists come here
: to see this place that is really a place of enormous suffering?
: ASHUN: Yeah. I think that those who are coming are here to learn
: so that we don't repeat the same mistakes.
: So it doesn't serve just as a tourist center,
: but a kind of educational center, sort of.
: So that everybody will learn from it
: and will make the world a better place than it is today.
: Between about the 1440s and the 1880s,
: over a million Ghanaians were ripped from their homes
: and kidnapped into the Atlantic slave trade.
: Multiply that by more than ten to understand the scale
: over the entire continent of Africa.
: We know that this must have had
: a deep and dramatic impact on Ghanaian society.
: We can think about the psychological trauma
: it must have caused, the social breakdowns,
: the economic dislocation, and the political decline.
: But we don't really know about
: the impact of the Atlantic slave trade.
: Enslaved people don't leave behind a lot of records
: and a lot of people today in different parts of the world
: don't want to talk about that era.
: As a result, when we get Ghanaian historians together,
: we see some disagreement over the precise details
: of the Atlantic slave trade and its impact.
: But we also see a broad recognition
: that results were deep and they were lasting,
: that they were widespread
: and that they still haven't gone away today,
: and that we need to understand the scale of the impact
: of the slave trade in Africa
: if we are to understand the patterns
: of world history themselves.
: My name is Trevor Getz
: and I'm a professor of African history
: at San Francisco State University.
: I'm here at Cape Coast Castle
: in Ghana in West Africa.
: You know, 25 years ago,
: when I first became interested in African history,
: my high school world history text book
: had very little to say about Ghana.
: It was as if there was no information about the place.
: But in fact we know an awful lot about this country,
: and it's Ghanaian historians who help us to understand it
: and its place in world history.
: I'm here to talk to some of those historians
: about the Atlantic slaving system.
: I want to understand what Ghana was like
: before the Atlantic slave trade
: and how the Atlantic slave trade,
: which ripped millions of people from their homes
: and left devastation in its wake,
: changed this country
: and the lasting legacy that it has.
: So, I'm here with Ato Ashun, the regional director
: for the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board.
: - Yeah. - And, where are we?
: ASHUN: Currently, you are at Cape Coast Castle.
: GETZ: Before Europeans arrived in this region, in general,
: what kind of political structures were there?
: ASHUN: Well, you know, before they came,
: we have the chiefs, working together
: with the elders of states.
: They would be today like the president
: and the cabinet ministers, running the system.
: Then we had the heads of the various family units.
: We call them "abusua."
: They are those together with the chiefs
: running the political system of the various places.
: GETZ: So you have an executive, the chiefs,
: and then you have a legislative if you will,
: which is the elders. - Of course.
: GETZ: What was the economic system like here?
: Were people trading, was there commerce,
: were people growing things, was there industry?
: ASHUN: In fact, we we would have
: the, the farming, growing things.
: We would have the commerce.
: And we had fishing, also.
: GETZ: So, a pretty sophisticated commercial system,
: stable states with an executive,
: and a legislative branch.
: And then we have the arrival of Europeans
: and we have the Atlantic slave trade.
: (Ghanaian music playing)
: When did the Atlantic slave trade begin here?
: ASHUN: You will talk about the fact
: that when the Portuguese came over here,
: they came along with it.
: But then, when you talk of the Cape Coast Castle,
: you talk about when the English took over, actually.
: So that was round about 1660, '65, thereabout.
: (Ghanaian music playing)
: GETZ: At that point, is it involved in the slave trade?
: ASHUN: Oh, yes, at that time, they had already started.
: GETZ: And so what would happen
: when British and other European ships come up here
: to purchase people?
: ASHUN: Two different occasions would happen.
: When the merchants would come to buy,
: and when the castle would supply their colonies.
: GETZ: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
: Okay, so there were actually dungeons
: built into this place right from the beginning?
: ASHUN: Absolutely, we have two separate dungeons.
: We have the male's dungeon
: and the female's dungeons.
: We... total we could talk about 1,300 the minimum.
: - People? - People.
: - At one time? - At one time.
: Yes, and in the male's dungeons,
: we have five compartments
: making up the whole dungeon.
: And every compartment had 200 people at a time.
: It is sad to see the dungeon because, you know,
: unlike other places where they were given containers
: where they could defecate into them,
: here in Cape Coast Castle, they create a sort of canals
: in the dungeon that they could do it into them.
: And whenever it rained, the rain would wash these away.
: GETZ: Yeah, I mean, these must be
: terrible, terrible conditions, unimaginable.
: ASHUN: Unimaginable.
: GETZ: But here's what really shocks me.
: - Yeah. - We are sitting above
: the dungeons, essentially.
: The British officers were living above this all the time.
: Can you... I mean, it's unimaginable.
: So for it to be worth it, it must have made
: a lot of money for them? - Of course.
: - Yeah - Of course.
: This was very profitable for the European companies
: involved and such. - Mm-hmm.
: GETZ: How did the Atlantic slave trade
: transform the economic system here?
: ASHUN: Well, so, now human beings
: have become commodities. - Mm-hmm.
: ASHUN: So, those who would dig for gold
: will now go into capturing people.
: Those who would spend time farming are being captured.
: So, it changed the whole dynamics.
: We would start experiencing farming from this end
: because people will start moving deep into the forest,
: running away from the radar of these wicked people.
: Yes, economics changed.
: GETZ: Wow, so, okay, so it sounds like
: three things you're saying... is first of all,
: people are being taken away, so they don't work.
: Second, people who would normally be working
: on productive things like digging for gold
: or growing things are turning to slave trading
: because they have to in order to survive.
: - Right. - And, thirdly,
: people can't live where they would normally live,
: they have to go into the forest.
: ASHUN: Of course. They have to keep moving.
: GETZ: This is a huge transformation.
: ASHUN: Yes. So, leave everything you've done behind
: Because you don't want to be captured.
: (Ghanaian music playing)
: AKOSUA PERBI: It was really a time of insecurity.
: People have to move with security guards and so
: because you dare not move alone.
: You'd always go in bands.
: Because you were not sure what would happen on the way.
: It also was affected the legal system
: in terms of the court system.
: Because where there were fines for various offenses,
: some case would decide that no,
: we are not going to ask you to pay any fine.
: Rather go and become a slave somewhere.
: I heard the case of the king of Komenda in the 1700s,
: who... the brother did something he didn't like.
: And instead of asking the brother pay a fine,
: he asked the brother to be enslaved across the Atlantic.
: Not only the brother, but the wife
: and the children as well, you know.
: And then also, in some areas, like the Akwamu area,
: people resorted to kidnapping a lot.
: (speaking local language)
: And that also affected the traditional system.
: Because kidnapping was not a way of life in Ghana.
: (Ghanaian music playing)
: GETZ: So I've been talking to people mostly along the coast
: about slavery and the Atlantic slaving system,
: and I'm very interested to get a view
: from further in the interior, from this region,
: which you are an expert in and further to the north.
: Well, it affected the Middle Belt
: directly and indirectly.
: Directly in the sense that they wanted European goods
: such as guns, gunpowder, fabrics, and so on.
: And they had to deliver and retain
: whatever the Europeans wanted at a particular time.
: So, initially, it was mainly gold
: and elephant tusk or ivory.
: And they were so positioned
: that they could deliver these commodities.
: And then, over time,
: as the transatlantic slave trade intensified
: and the commodities that were required
: in exchange for European goods,
: desired by the Asante and people in the Middle Belt,
: generally was human beings.
: Because of the plantation agriculture
: that was going on in the New World,
: most of the slaves that were taken out of Asante,
: for example, did not necessarily originate from this region.
: They had to look up north for them.
: (Ghanaian music playing)
: What was the impact of the Atlantic slave trade
: in the north?
: Uh, to the north I would say it was more devastating
: in the sense that, if you remember,
: I said most of the slaves that were sent from the Middle Belt
: did not originate from here.
: They came from the north either as captives
: or they were brought in as tribute
: because parts of the north
: had been conquered by Asante, and as subjects of Asante,
: they had to pay homage and tribute to Asante.
: And this caused people in the north to war amongst themselves.
: And also some of them found the opportunity to trade.
: So if they were able to attack weaker neighbors,
: they would be able to acquire slaves, sell off,
: and get some money out of that.
: What do you think was the impact on that region
: of the removal of so many hundreds of thousands
: or even millions of people?
: First of all, I will say insecurity,
: because one was not too certain when there would be a raid.
: And there are so many stories about villages
: that were attacked, raided, and people taken away.
: And though some of them who found their way to the south
: and became integrated in southern societies,
: you know, tell of how they came to be in the south.
: So you can tell from them that there was a lot of insecurity.
: And definitely, if people are worried,
: trying to protect themselves,
: it's going to also hinder
: their major source of economic activity,
: which was agriculture.
: So, I'll say that in the north
: it must have had more devastating effect.
: What do you think have been the long-term impacts
: of the Atlantic slave trade on Ghanaian society?
: Now people hedge about talking about their roles
: in the transatlantic slave trade.
: It takes a lot of effort
: before people will actually open up to talk about it,
: talking to people who have lost family.
: You know, very often we just think about those
: who were sent away.
: But we do not think about those who were left behind.
: Because those who were sent out belonged to families.
: They had parents, they had siblings,
: some of them had children, and so on.
: And there are memories
: of those who lost loved ones to the trade.
: So that is very often hidden, it doesn't come out in the open.
: GETZ: So we're actually talking about multi-generational trauma.
: Yes. Yes.
: - Yeah, incredible. - Yes.
: Let me make it very simple.
: One simple thing it did
: was to take away our independence
: and bring in dependence.
: So that, you know, we are digging for gold ourselves,
: now when we get the gold,
: we have to bring you the gold dust,
: you bring us the trinkets.
: Now we're not able to have the opportunity
: to develop the system we're already having.
: GETZ: Let me ask you, how did you first learn about
: the impact of the Atlantic slave trade here?
: In my growing stages,
: I never had the opportunity to visit the dungeons...
: - Mm-hmm. - ...that much.
: I could see the castle pass by.
: But when I grew up a little bit,
: that was when I entered for the first time.
: And I had then grown, so I was like...
: that was why I said to you that I was sitting in the dungeons
: crying every morning for about a week or two,
: because, one, I was surprised that it did happen.
: Two, I was again surprised
: that even though I was born around the castle,
: never had the opportunity to, to visit it.
: So, then it was very difficult to take.
: GETZ: So, can you tell me what the Door of No Return is?
: ASHUN: You know, the very last point the African exited
: from the castles to the ships to be taken away,
: that very last point of the exit,
: is what is termed "Door of No Return."
: Because knowing that you will never come back in
: to Africa again.
: What do you think about the fact that tourists come here
: to see this place that is really a place of enormous suffering?
: ASHUN: Yeah. I think that those who are coming are here to learn
: so that we don't repeat the same mistakes.
: So it doesn't serve just as a tourist center,
: but a kind of educational center, sort of.
: So that everybody will learn from it
: and will make the world a better place than it is today.
: Between about the 1440s and the 1880s,
: over a million Ghanaians were ripped from their homes
: and kidnapped into the Atlantic slave trade.
: Multiply that by more than ten to understand the scale
: over the entire continent of Africa.
: We know that this must have had
: a deep and dramatic impact on Ghanaian society.
: We can think about the psychological trauma
: it must have caused, the social breakdowns,
: the economic dislocation, and the political decline.
: But we don't really know about
: the impact of the Atlantic slave trade.
: Enslaved people don't leave behind a lot of records
: and a lot of people today in different parts of the world
: don't want to talk about that era.
: As a result, when we get Ghanaian historians together,
: we see some disagreement over the precise details
: of the Atlantic slave trade and its impact.
: But we also see a broad recognition
: that results were deep and they were lasting,
: that they were widespread
: and that they still haven't gone away today,
: and that we need to understand the scale of the impact
: of the slave trade in Africa
: if we are to understand the patterns
: of world history themselves.