Elmina and Cape Coast

We went to two nearby towns to see old European castles that were used for holding slaves.

This first castle is St. George's castle in Elmina. It was build in 1462 by the Portuguese, then later seized by the Dutch, then the British. They all took part in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. This castle is the oldest standing structure in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The men and women were always separated. This is part of the female slave dungeon. There were a few different rooms, but none any better than this. They were given food twice a day. They were held here for sometimes months at a time.

This is one of the rooms in the male slave dungeon. The dungeons in Cape Coast castle were bigger, but we didn't really get any good pictures beacause they were so dark. In Cape Coast castle, about two thousand men were held in four small, connected rooms. The shortest time anyone was there was about six weeks, the longest was several months. They were given food twice a day and they never left the dungeon, except if they were going to be killed or put on a slave ship.

The two tunnels above lead to the Room of No Return. This is the door the slaves went out of to get into boats that took them to the slave ships. It is the Room of No Return because once a slave entered this room, they never returned to their country.
The structure behind me is a Catholic church that the Portuguese built in the middle of the castle. Ironic isn't it?

The area around the castle is very beautiful.

This is Fort St. Jago, near St. George's castle. It was originally built as a church by a Portuguese missionary but the Dutch took it over and used it for military purposes. We didn't go inside it.

This is Cape Coast Castle. It is quite a bit bigger than St. George's Castle but it has the same history.

There were lots of cannons at both castles. The castle passed hands so many times they must have needed a lot of artillery to protect what they thought was theirs.