[European Slave Forts in Ghana]

Four views of important trading points along the Dutch Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana).

This pair of engraved prints was created in the mid-18th century by Jacques Nicolas Bellin, based on views by the French slave-trader Jean Barbot. Each page shows an illustrated view of two forts along the Dutch Gold Coast in modern-day Ghana. The small canoes often seen in the foreground would have been used to transport enslaved people and other goods (gold, ivory, etc.) to the larger ships waiting offshore.

The various scenes capture the following locations as they would have appeared in the early 18th century from the decks of those ships: Fort Batenstein (literally ‘profit fort’), Fort San Sebastian, Fort Amsterdam, and Fort Frederiksborg. Each of these outposts (and several others) was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1979 as recognition for their relevance to the economic history and European exploitation of West Africa.