Scandinavian's Atlantic Slave Trade...

5fish

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Yes, Nordic nation were involved in the Atlantic Slave trade like other Western European nations of the 17th, 18th and 19th century. There was a Swedish and Danish Gold Coast like the Prussians and others. The Norwegians were involved as well usually with the Danes. It seems greed and bigotry can trump humanity...

Here a list of the Gold Coast in Africa...

Danish Gold Coast...


The Danish Gold Coast (Danish: Danske Guldkyst or Dansk Guinea) comprised the colonies that Denmark–Norway controlled in Africa as a part of the Gold Coast (roughly present-day southeast Ghana), which is on the Gulf of Guinea. It was colonized by the Dano-Norwegian fleet, first under indirect rule by the Danish West India Company (a chartered company), later as a crown colony of the kingdom of Denmark-Norway. The five Danish Gold Coast Territorial Settlements and forts of the Kingdom of Denmark were sold to the United Kingdom and were incorporated into the British Gold Coast in 1850.

Swedish Gold Coast...


The Swedish Gold Coast (Swedish: Svenska Guldkusten) was a Swedish colony founded in 1650 by Hendrik Carloff on the Gulf of Guinea in present-day Ghana in Africa. It lasted until April 1663 when the whole Swedish Gold Coast was seized by Denmark, and integrated in the Danish Gold Coast.

Notes...


Between the late seventeenth century and the first decades of the nineteenth century, Scandinavians participated in the Atlantic slave trade like other Europeans. This trade led to the founding of Danish and Swedish establishments in Africa and the West Indies. However, the implication of Scandinavians in the slave trade was not limited to the tens of thousands of African deportees. It had other effects, especially by offering outlets for national products, or by stimulating trade between their colonies on a West Indian scale.

snip,,,

Denmark developed regular Atlantic navigation. The Danes engaged in the triangular trade, with a total of approximately 260 voyages, and deported 100,000-110,000 Africans between 1660 and 1806, or approximately 1% of the total Atlantic slave trade. The average number of Africans taken on by Danish ships increased tenfold between 1660-1733 (236/year) and 1793-1806 (2,577/year). Throughout the eighteenth century, periods of Danish neutrality during French-British conflicts were prosperous times for the slave trade. In fact, the percentage of the slave population continued to grow in Danish colonies. In Sainte Croix, the development of sugar production stimulated demand for slaves, who numbered approximately 25,000 during the 1780s, or over 90% of the island’s population, a level similar to that of other sugar-producing islands in the West Indies.

Note...


The lack of research into colonialism in Sweden makes it difficult to quantify the country’s involvement, but Thomasson says a recent PhD thesis says there were around 12-13,000 African captives transported on Swedish ships. “It’s a minor number compared to the millions when you look at the US and so on, but it indicates Swedish ambitions.”

Note...


Norwegians made up around 10 percent of the total crew serving on slave ships at any one time, wrote Svensli in newspaper Aftenposten recently. Hyrum Svensli’s PhD project explores the slave trade rivalry between Denmark-Norway, England and the Netherlands in Ghana in the 1600s and 1700s. That’s when Norwegians took part in what’s been called the “triangle of trade” on Norwegian and Danish ships like the Fredensborg, found wrecked off Arendal in 1974. Norwegians staffed slave forts on the African coast, sailed on the slave ships and carried goods produced by slaves back to Norway and the rest of Europe. The “triangle” went mostly from Norway and Denmark to Ghana, then to Caribbean ports such as St Croix and St Thomas and back to Scandinavia.


snip...

Those Norwegians who served at the slave posts on the Gold Coast came from various backgrounds such as soldiers, gunsmiths, artisans and even clergymen. They shared one thing in common in that they were for the most part “incompetent and reckless adventurers,” Hyrum Svensli told Aftenposten.







 

5fish

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Denmark wont apologize for the slave trade, WHY?


snip...

Denmark has never apologised for the period of slavery. According to Andersen, there are four reasons for this:

  • The period of colonialism is generally not present in the Danish understanding of history. Because of this, there is no pressure from the Danish people. “Apologies from states are very rarely given without a period of pressure from the people, or from the outside world,” she says.
  • The Danish state may fear that an apology will lead to demands for financial compensation. Some apologies are followed by compensations. Nyrup Rasmussen’s apology to Greenland, for instance, was followed by funding for an airport.
  • Denmark is awaiting the UN’s verdict on the question of compensation for the transatlantic slave trade. The issue was raised in 2001 at the Durban 1 conference, but no agreement was reached.
  • The Virgin Islands are part of the US, and all diplomatic connections between Denmark and the Virgin Islands must be granted prior permission from Washington. The US only apologised for the slave trade in 2009, and has not since paid any compensation.
“It would have been and will therefore still be considered undue interference with American domestic politics if Denmark apologises and subsequently pays compensation for the slavery,” she says.
 

5fish

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I found a castle... slave trader one that is... two links to check out...


Danish shame
Erected in 1784, the crumbling ruins of Fort Prinzenstein in Keta, east of the Volta River, are a reminder of Denmark's role in the transatlantic slave trade. As the first slave-trading country to abolish the practice in 1792, Denmark's barbaric involvement in shipping an estimated 120,000 slaves to the former West Indies is often glossed over.

 

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Sweds Fort....


FORT CHRISTIANSBORG (ACCRA)
In 1652 the Swedes built a lodge in Accra and in 1660 it was seized by the Dutch. In 1661 the Danes occupied the place and built a fort named Fort Christiansborg. This fort was situated near two other forts: Fort Crèvecœur and Fort James, the former Dutch and the latter English. The Danish fort was located on a rock cliff near the African town of Osu and its position was the best of the three. The fort was in Danish hands for nearly two hundred years except for a short Portuguese occupation. On 2 December 1680 a Portuguese ship arrived at the Danish fort. The Danish Governor Bolt sold the fort to the Portuguese commander of the ship Julião de Campos Barreto. The Portuguese renamed it Fort São Francisco Xavier and built a chapel in the fort. The Portuguese abandoned the fort on 29 August 1682. It was then occupied by the Akwamu tribe until February 1683, when the Danes from nearby Fort Fredriksborg reoccupied it. In 1685 the Danes moved their headquarters from Fort Fredriksborg to Fort Christiansborg. The fort was square shaped with four bastions. In 1693 an African tribe occupied the fort, but in 1694 the Danes retook it. The Danes made several attempts to establish plantations near the fort and they also established in the early 1800s a hill-station and a plantation thirty–two kilometers inland from Fort Christiansborg at Kpomkpo (Frederiksborg). In 1850 the Danes sold the Castle to the British.
 

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A list of forts and Castles along the Ghana coast...

 
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