Skip to content
History–Tours
14821482–1807 · Cape Coast

The transatlantic slave trade on the Gold Coast

Elmina Castle, the whitewashed Portuguese fort on the coast of Ghana
Photo: Damien Halleux Radermecker. CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Portuguese built São Jorge da Mina at Elmina in 1482, and over three centuries European companies added dozens of forts along the Gold Coast. Captives were held in their dungeons before being shipped across the Atlantic, part of a trade that carried about 12.5 million Africans to the Americas. Cape Coast and Elmina castles are now memorials visited by descendants from around the world.

Sites

  1. Site 1: Cape Coast CastleMale and female dungeons and the 'Door of No Return' to the sea.Map ↗
  2. Site 2: Elmina Castle (São Jorge da Mina)The oldest European building south of the Sahara, with slave dungeons.Map ↗
  3. Site 3: Fort St. Jago, ElminaHilltop Dutch fort overlooking Elmina castle and harbour.Map ↗

Guides who take you there

History-only · order never for sale
We haven't found an independent history guide for this yet. Guide here? Tell us about your tours.

Also in Accra & Cape Coast

More from the Renaissance & Early Modern

Read more: reference. Summary written by History-Tours.com.