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Cherchez la Femme: Gender-Related Issues in Eighteenth-Century Elmina1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2011

Natalie Everts
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Extract

In June 1760 Nicolaas Heinsius, Dutch factor in service of the West India Company (WIC) on the Gold Coast, and commander of fortress Batenstein at Butri, took the law into his own hands. He pawned three slaves owned by the black woman Paraba, because she had, in name of her abusua (matrilineal descent group) appropriated the inheritance of his deceased African concubine and, what is more, she had told Heinsius that she intended to take care of the raising of his Euro-African son. In a letter to his superiors, who resided at Elmina castle, he accounted for his action. Heinsius explained that he acted not for himself but in his little son's interests, the latter being, so he thought, according to indigenous law, the sole heir to his mother's legacy. The reaction he received from the president and the council at Elmina contained a sharp reprimand. The WIC-authorities designated his claim on the inheritance as unlawful and contrary to customary law, and ordered him to immediately return the slaves.

Type
Articles
Information
Itinerario , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , March 1996 , pp. 45 - 57
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1996

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References

2 Isert, P.E., Voyages en Guinée et dans les îles Caraïbes en Amérique. Introduction et notes de N. Gayibor (Paris 1989) 177–178. (First (German) edition in 1789).Google Scholar

3 [L.F. Rōmer], Le Golfe de Guinée 1700–1750. Recit de L.F. Rōmer marchand d'esclaves sur la côte ouest-africaine. Traduction, introduction et notes par M. Dige-Hess (Paris 1989) 218. Rōmer's account was first published in Denmark in 1760.

4 Letter J.P. Huydecoper to N. Heinsius (Elmina) 7 June 1760; Letter Heinsius to Huydecoper (Butri) 23 June 1760, ARA, NBKC, 121.

See, for the jurisdiction practised by the Dutch administration towards the local African governments: Baesjou, R., ‘Dutch “Irregular” Jurisdiction on the Nineteenth Century Gold Coast’, in: African Perspectives II (1979) 21–66.Google Scholar

5 The unfree status of a woman had consequences for her children. The main principle is that her offspring belongs to her owner(s). The sources give an indication that many of the Euro-African soldiers in Company service for this reason have to hand over their wages to an owner.

Anonymous letter to WIC-Chamber Amsterdam undated 1788, ARA, WIC 500, pp. 1327–1336.

6 Daaku, K.Y., Trade and politics on the Gold Coast, 1600–1720 (Oxford 1970) 1–20Google Scholar; Feinberg, H.M., Africans and Europeans in West Africa: Elminans and Dutchmen on the Gold Coast during the Eighteenth Century (Philadelphia 1989) chapters II and IVGoogle Scholar; Priestley, M., West African Trade and Coast Society: A Family Study (London 1969) passim.Google Scholar

7 See for example: letter Huydecoper to the Board of X (Elmina) 8 August 1760, ARA, WIC 114, pp. 1038–1042.

8 W. Bosman, Nauwkeurige Beschrijving van de Guinese Goud-, Tand- en Slavekust (Utrecht 1704) 119, 199; Escudier, D. ed., Voyage d'Eustache Delafosse sur la côte de Guinée, au Portugal & en Espagne 1479–1481 (Paris 1992) 29Google Scholar; Hemmersham, M., Reise nach Guinea und Brasilien (1639–1645) Naber, S.P. L'Honoré ed. (The Hague 1930) 1–88 (first edition 1663)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; de Marees, P., Beschryvinghe van Guinea, anders de Goutcust de Mina genaemt liggende in het Deel van Africa. Naber, S.P. L'Honoré ed. (Werken uitgegeven door de Linschoten Vereeniging V) (The Hague 1912) 24–27 (first edition 1602).Google Scholar

9 Samuel Brun's Schiffarten. Naber, S.P. L'Honoré ed. (Werken uitgegeven door de Linschoten Vereeniging VI) (The Hague 1913) 57 (first edition 1624).Google Scholar

10 De Marees, Beschryvinghe, 24–27; Hair, P.E.H. et al. Barbot on Guinea: The writings of Jean Barbot on West Africa 1678–1712 II (London 1992) 495, 505–506.Google Scholar

11 De Marees, Beschryvinghe, 23–25; Bosman, Nauwkeurige Beschrijving, 117–119.

12 Rōmer, Le Golfe de Guinee, 170–219.

13 de Marée, J.A., Reizen op en Beschrijving van de Goudkust van Guinea II (The Hague and Amsterdam 1818) 118.Google Scholar

14 See for the position of the ministers of the Dutch Reformed church in WIC-service: Debrunner, H.W., A History of Christianity in Ghana (Accra 1967).Google Scholar

15 Letter E. Jorck van Slanghenburgh to directors WIC-chamber Amsterdam (Elmina) 6 May 1699, ARA, WIC 97, p. 109.

16 For biographical details, see: Eekhoff, A., De Negerpredikant Jacobus Eliza Capitein, 1717–1747 (The Hague 1917)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kpobi, D.N.A., Mission in Chains: The life, Theology and Ministry of the Ex-Slave Jacobus E.J. Capitein (1717–1747) with a Translation of his Major Publications (doctoral dissertation Utrecht; Zoetermeer 1993).Google Scholar

17 Letter J.E.J. Capitein to Board of X (Elmina) 15 February 1743, ARA, WIC 113, pp. 139–140.

18 Letter J.E.J. Capitein to the directors of the WIC-chamber Amsterdam (Elmina) 1 July 1745, ARA, WIC 113, pp. 381–383.

19 In the Dutch Republic parents who let their children be baptised in the Dutch Reformed Church were obliged to make the promise to bring them up according to the doctrine of that church. Children from parents who did not belong to the Dutch Reformed Church or those who were excommunicated, could be baptised in the presence of a witness, who had to make the promise. See for the origins of this tradition: van Deursen, A.Th., Bavianen en Slijkgeuzen: Kerk en Kerkvolk ten Tijde van Maurits en Oldebarnevelt (Franeker 1991) 136–137.Google Scholar

20 Letter M. Beckeringh to Classis Amsterdam (Elmina) 3 June 1756, Municipal Archive Amsterdam (GAA), PA 379, 210.

21 Letter G. Verbeet to the directors of the WIC-chamber Amsterdam (Elmina) 20 October 1764, ARA, WIC 492, pp. 756–758.

22 See for instance: McLeod, M.D., The Ashante (London 1981)Google Scholar; The obsession with pregnancy and the pschycological pressure it can put on Akan-women, is beautifully described by Konadu, S.A. in his novel: A Woman in her Prime (London 1981).Google Scholar

23 Rōmer, Le Golfe de Guinée, 170.

24 On an inspection visit to Moree, WIC-employees enjoy the hospitality of ‘Jacob van Dijk his mother”. Letter J. van Rijk to R. Ulsen (Moree) l June 1756, ARA, NBKG 117; In 1660 an African woman, known to the WIC-officials as ‘Anthonie Baas’ mother’ claims a debt. Elmina Journal 11 June 1660, ARA, NBKG 81.

25 Letter A. Thierens to P. Woortman (Bercu) 2 April 1770, ARA, NBKG 131.

26 Letter D.P. Erasmi to C. Klok (Elmina) 11 April 1761, ARA, NBKG 122.

27 Letters R. Ulsen to J. Bronckhorst (Elmina) 21 and 28 May 1756, ARA, NBKG 117.

28 Many wills of Company servants confirm this. See for instance the wills of C.H. Gevert, ARA, NBKG 335, p. 94; and of W.L. Koch, ARA, NBKG 336, p. 17. See for the death rate of WIC-employees in eighteenth-entury Elmina: Feinberg, Africans and Europeans, 36–38.

29 Frederik Willem Fennekol (Elmina 1761-Noordwijk Binnen 1837), Euro-African son of chief merchant J.C. Fennekol was sent to school in the Netherlands and studied law in Leiden and Harderwijk. An account of all expenses during his education for the years 1780–1785 shows an total amount of f 30,087.–. (Biographical details collected by the author for a forthcoming article.)

A few Euro-Africans founded a kind of family networks based in Africa and Surinam as well as in the Netherlands. For their genealogies see: Michel R. Doortmont, Natalie Everts and Jean Jacques Vrij, ‘Tussen de Goudkust, Nederland en Suriname. De Euro-Afrikaanse families Van Bakergem, Rūhle, Woortman en Huydecoper’ (forthcoming article).

30 Biographical data collected by the author for a forthcoming article “Omdat ik een Uytlander ben’ on the Huydecoper family of Elmina.

31 See for instance: ‘Monsterrol’ 1758, ARA, WIC 491, pp. 296–303.

32 Journal Elmina 31 August and 2 September 1765, ARA, NBKG 126.

33 Examples are to be found in: ARA, NBKG 332, p. 22; NBKG 335, p. 94; NBKG 337, p. 157.

34 Letter P. Woortman to Board of X (Elmina) 9 November 1767, ARA, WIC 929, p. 262. Wills: Huydecoper 7 July 1767, NBKG 335, p. 31; Walmbeek 10 August 1765, NBKG 335, p. 17; Sulyard van Leefdael 20 June 1767, NBKG 335, p. 29; Letter G. Verbeet to Classis Amsterdam (Elmina) 17 November 1766, GAA, Archives Classis Amsterdam, PA 379, no. 210.

35 This estimation is argued on the basis of data about WIC-employees compiled by: Michel R. Doortmont en Natalie Everts, in: ‘Onzichtbare Afrikanen, Euroafrikanen tussen de Goudkust en Nederland, 1750–1850’ (to be published in a forthcoming volume by the Instituut voor Maatschappijwetenschappen, Amsterdam).

36 Ibid.

37 ARA, NBKG 335, 16–17; Anonymous letter to WIC-chamber Amsterdam undated 1788, ARA, WIC 500, pp. 1327–1336.

38 See note 30.

39 Will and estate F.C.E. Oldenburg (Elmina) 5–9 February 1820, ARA, NBKG 982; Request J. Kūntzen (Elmina) 4 January 1821. Ibid.

40 Letters J.E.J. Capitein to Board of X (Elmina) 15 February 1743, ARA, WIC 113, pp. 139–140, appendix, paragraphs 12, 13, 14; and to the directors of the WIC-chamber Amsterdam (Elmina) 18 April 1743, ARA, WIC 488, p. 838–839.

41 Letter J.E.J. Capitein to Classis Amsterdam (Elmina) 21 May 1746, GAA, Archives Classis Amsterdam, PA 379, no. 210; Letter J.E.J. Capitein to Board of X (Elmina) 15 February 1743, ARA, WIC 113, pp. 139–140, appendix, paragraph 13.

42 Rōmer mentions this aspect as well: Le Golfe de Guinée, 218–219.