Historical-Archaeological Investigations at the Frederiksgave Plantation, Ghana: A Case Study of Slavery and Plantation Life on a Nineteenth Century Danish Plantation on the Gold Coast

Abstract

The global processes that were unleashed due to the maritime exploration and commercial expansion of Europe made an impact on indigenous cultures of the Atlantic world. Between the late fifteenth and the nineteenth century the Atlantic Slave Trade, which existed due to the European contact, and basically involved trade in Africa's human cargoes, affected traditional institutions and local life. On the Gold Coast, the Royal Danish Government established agricultural plantations in the foothills of the Akuapem Mountains and along the estuary of the Volta River. The plantations, which were established in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, produced agricultural commodities for consumption and industrial processing. The thesis surveyed the Danish plantations on the Gold Coast, highlighting on their location. historical development and production management as portrayed by Danish documentary sources. The present state of the plantations is also described. The study has demonstrated that the Danish plantations on the Gold Coast developed as a result of the European global expansionist activities particularly the Atlantic Slave Trade. The diverse archaeological objects particularly, the exotic trade goods obtained at the Frederiksgave plantation is an indication of the incorporation of the Danish plantation complex into the European dominated world economic system of the nineteenth century. xix Resident enslaved African workers provided labour on the plantations. This work investigated the social conditions of the enslaved African workforce who tirelessly cultivated the plantations in the Akuapem Mountains. Originally, the Danes, who participated in the Atlantic Slave Trade, used enslaved Africans in their forts and private homes. However, when they became involved in plantation agriculture on the Gold Coast, these slaves were transferred to work on the farms as plantation workers. Archaeological data recovered from the Frederiksgave plantation was combined with documentary, ethnographic and oral information to provide insights into what the daily life was like for the enslaved workers on the plantations. The enslaved workers on the plantations were drawn from different ethnic backgrounds on the Gold Coast. They engaged in diverse servile tasks, which ranged from weeding, planting, harvesting and head loading and transporting harvested commodities to warehouses on the Accra coast. The subsistence and building construction patterns on the plantations strongly remained African. It was clear that all categories of slaves on the plantation were trapped by their enslaved condition. The slaves therefore adopted appropriate responses to resist their disadvantaged social conditions.