Cape Coast and Elmina Slave Castles

‘Cabo Corso,’ meaning ‘short cape’, is the name the Portuguese called the area now known as Cape Coast. It is the home of the Cape Coast Slave Castle. Cape Coast Castle is one of about thirty "slave castles", built on the Gold Coast of West Africa (now Ghana). It was built for trade of timber and gold but the principle trade later became the slave trade. About 1000 males slaves and 500 female slaves occupied the castle at any one time in gender separate dungeons. Each slave would be locked up for 6 to 12 weeks or until they died, waiting for their turn to board one of the ships. The last door they went out from the castle into the ship is called the door of no return. The dungeons were unbearable with hundreds of slaves crammed in together and no toilet facilities. In many cases they were stacked and simply laid down in layers to save space. Above them the people had a chapel and held church each Sunday. As you walk into the chapel, there is a peep door where they could look at the slaves as they came and left. There were only a few windows to let in the fresh air in the dungeon and the urine and feces completely covered the floor of the dungeons and were left to accumulate group after group. Most of the slaves were shipped to Brazil and the Caribbean. About 10% of the slaves were shipped to the United States. Many of the slaves died on the voyages. This is one of those historical places that you want people to remember so that this will never happen again.