Looking for a hammock: First results

Our request for assistance with the hammock or palanquin given to the Dutch princess Carolina has led to several valuable suggestions and discussions, with some preliminary results as well.

An example of the type of palanquin that could have been given is in the Musée des Civilisations de Côte d'Ivoire.

"An employee presents an Akan royal hammock from the 17th century used to transport an eastern [Ghanaian chief]." Getty Images, copyright uncertain.

Another example of a historical palanquin is in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter, England. It is a so-called gold-weight figure in brass, showing a chief being carried in a palanquin, with a group of people around standing around. This one has a board at both ends, probably in wood. This could be a feature on which one could make carvings.

We thank George Homs for his efforts on the second example. Further suggestions are welcome.

Looking for a hammock

For a change, a request for help, to identify the 'hammock' which accompanied the boys sent to princess Carolina.

So far, this blog has addressed the issue of children sent from Ghana to Europe and the question if we could give Presto a place among the identified children, being procured, or serving in the castle of St. George d'Elmina.

However, there is something else to look for. After all, we are working with the hypothesis that Presto and Fortuin were the boys given as a gift to the Princess Carolina of Orange-Nassau in 1748. That gift comprised of the two boys, and a 'costly' or 'richly adorned' hammock.'

Newspaper clipping mentioning 'een kostbare hangmat uit dat Weereld-deel;' 'a costly hammock from that Continent'

What was this 'hammock' made of, what did it look like, and what was its function? We soon came to the conclusion that what was described as a 'hammock' in the Dutch newspaper, must have been a so-called palanquin, a contraption in which Ghanaian Akan chiefs were and are transported during festivals. Nowadays the palanquin is usually constructed from a hollowed piece of wood, shaped in the form of a bed, with cushions to rest on, and covered with high-quality cloth. On the cloth there can be adornments symbolically depicting the identity of the chief and his personal or family history.

Chief of Elmina in palanquin at Bakatue Festival 2016. Photo by (c) Michel R. Doortmont

In Elmina we asked about the palanquin in history. My long-standing research assistant and fixer, Frank Kwesi Tweneboa-Kodua, came with a valuable suggestion. Frank noted that when he was a child, in the 1970s, a different type of palanquin was still quite common.

It consisted of two bamboo sticks, with in-between a plaited fibre mat. On both ends, two shorter bamboo sticks, secured with rope or fibre, allowed for it to be carried by four persons.

Possible form of the hammock / palanquin given to Princess Carolina. Drawing by (c) Michel R. Doortmont

The sketch gives an impression of what it could have looked like. So far, we have not found any real-life examples of this type of palanquin, or any drawings, for that matter. So we ask the question here, to fellow researchers and local parties: do you know of this type of palanquin / hammock, as means of transport for Akan chiefs? If so, leave your comments below.

Additionally: How does one 'adorn' a palanquin of this type, or what makes it 'costly'? Were there items (beads, brass bells or other objects, etc.) attached to it? Was it painted or carved?

It seems this type needs to be carried by four persons, so would one not expect four boys to accompany the hammock for the princess? Or is there a type that can be carried by two people too?

We are keenly awaiting your suggestions.

Boy-servants at Elmina Castle

Living at Elmina Castle

The Castle of St. George d'Elmina was home to Dutch officials, soldiers, labourers, and servants from 1637 to 1872. In the eighteenth century, the castle also housed the enslaved men and women - a home to them it was certainly not - in the so-called dungeons.

The senior officials had relatively comfortable and spacious rooms, and the director-general had a multi-room appartment. This was were they organised their lives and spent much of their private time.

Elmina Castle, with view of living quarters of the officials in the high building on the left.

Ditto, looking at living quarters.

          

Officials and servants

The social-economic status of the senior officials was such, that they could maintain some sort of household, including servants. As far as we can establish these servants were always boys of various ages.

The social position of these boy-servants can best be compared to that of high-valued domestic slaves in the households of the African elite in the town of Elmina, next to the castle. Domestic slaves were often considered to be part of the family, could have lots of freedom of movement, and in some cases were able to work independently.

Prof. Akosua Perbi of the University of Ghana is a specialist in the history of indigenous slavery and wrote a book about it: A History of Indigenous Slavery in Ghana: From the 15th to the 19th Century.

As Natasha Gray states in her review of the book,

 'Perbi argues that slavery in Ghana was rooted in an African understanding of property rights based on kinship and reciprocity rather than individual ownership. Therefore, although slaves could be bought and sold, "the position of a slave in Ghana was 'that of a person in a state of servitude guarded by rights'" (p. 4). Interestingly, she notes that in precolonial Ghana there were five separate terms for different conditions of servitude: servant, pawn, slave, war captive, and slave under capital punishment (p. 3).'

On the legacy of indigenous slavery after abolition in 1874 Perbi gave a lecture that can be found on YouTube.

The historical evidence supports the hypothesis that the boy-servants can best be described as servants in the context of domestic slavery. This set them apart - literally and as a figure of speech - from the enslaved people that were kept imprisoned in the dungeons and slave camps, awaiting their shipment to the Americas and a life on the plantations.

Director-general Jan Pranger and his boy-servant in his quarters in Elmina Castle by Frans van der Mijn, 1742. Coll. Rijksmuseum.

The Dutch seventeenth-century poet and West India company official Focquenbroch wrote in 1678 about his boy-servant of about twelve years old:

' [Being] so kind, polite, and loyal, that I love the boy with all my Heart, and would (if he were a slave) not hesitate to pay a Pound of Gold for him.'

This confirms the idea that the boy-servant was a dependent and placed in a servile position, but not seen as a slave in the narrower sense of the word.

That they had freedom of movement and were staying with their 'masters', sleeping in a section of his accommodation is confirmed by a reference from the Dutch sources, where a West India Company official described how he, reporting to the rooms of fiscal Jan van Rijk, only found his two boy-servants there.

The personal relationship between European officials and their boy-servants, a relationship of mutual responsibility and care, also makes it plausible that many of these boys accompanied their 'masters' to the Netherlands when they returned. Or, alternatively, as evidence suggests, were sent to the Netherlands by themselves, to serve with family members or others.

In the quest for Presto it can be noted that in 1746-1747 fiscal Huibert van Rijk had his servants in the Castle, among whom the boy Accra Doura. He accompanied Van Rijk to the Netherlands and the town of Weesp in 1750, the town in which Presto would settle fifiteen years later. Also in 1746-1747, Presto was staying at Elmina Castle, purportedly in the service of director-general Jacob de Petersen, whom, we have already hypothesised, may well have been Presto's 'benefactor' and the reason he came to the Netherlands.

Presto returns to Ghana: Where to begin? (II)

Starting the search in Ghana

When this blog is published, Annemieke and I have arrived in Ghana and are on our way to Elmina, the place Presto departed from on his voyage to the Netherlands in the 1740s. We made the trip in reverse, but in a stunted manner. We did not travel by ship, arriving first at Axim in the west of Ghana, and then sailing on to Elmina, to anchor in the roadstead and be ferried ashore on a small boat or canoe. We arrived by plane at Kotoka International Airport Accra, spent the night in a comfortable hotel, and now travel to Elmina in an equally comfortable rental car.

And equally so, when we arrive in Elmina, this will be a very different place from the one Presto left some 270 years ago. One of the most important tasks therefore is for us to recreate the world Presto came from. In this last blog written from Europe, we once more revisit the clues and hints Christiaan left for us in his later life, as a starting point for the historical recreation of his world in the following blogs, which we will write from Ghana.

Clues on origin and arrival

Throughout his life, Christiaan left hints about his African origins and arrival in the Netherlands. That this is helpful for his identification has been shown in the earlier blogs. The letters Christiaan wrote to the King from 1815 onwards, and the letter his daughter Antje wrote in 1830 are most helpful here.

In all his letters to the King Christiaan wrote that he was born on the Coast of Guinea ('de kust van Guinea'), by way of introduction, and rather than emphasising his colour or former name of Presto. But he does not give many more details.

In her letter to the King, asking for assistance, his daughter Antje gave some additional information. She wrote:

'That in his lifetime, her [...] Grandfather was General on the Coast of Guinea, where her father was stolen as a child by the Guineans'

This is a very valuable clue. We may expect that this story came from her father. And the element of the 'grandfather-general' is new. Who can this 'General' be? The governor-in-chief of the Dutch Gold Coast had the official title of 'director general.' In daily practice this was often shortened to 'general,' in which form it even entered into official documents. When we then look at the period in which Presto came to the Netherlands, this coincided with the term of office of Jacob Baron de Petersen as director-general over the Dutch Gold Coast. He arrived in 1740, and left in 1747.

Prince-Stadtholder Willem V takes office as Superior Director of the W.I.C., Amsterdam 1768 (Simon Fokke, Coll. Rijksmuseum Amsterdam). Jacob de Petersen is purportedly seated to the right of the Prince.

But obviously, General Jacob de Petersen was not the biological father of Presto. So talking about him as 'grandfather' must be understood in a metaphorical or figurative sense. Apparently Christiaan had spoken to his family about De Petersen having been a fatherly figure to him. Possibly even making De Petersen his only connection to Africa.

In the last blog we showed how Jacob de Petersen was involved in the transfer of two young boys in Elmina in 1744. We here asked the question if these could be Presto and Fortuin. In view of Antje's statement, this suggestion becomes more plausible.

Jacob de Petersen registered on audience with Prince Willem V of Orange Nassau, 7 March 1771. Coll. Koninklijke Bibliotheek Den Haag

Besides, De Petersen was in a position to bring children with him to the Netherlands. He was a very powerful person in the West India Company, and very wealthy as well. He had served the W.I.C. from 1725 onwards in executive positions, first in Curaçao and afterwards in West Africa. His relationships with the upper classes of Amsterdam and the Hague were strong, and he had a good relationship with the Court of Orange-Nassau as well. After his final return to the Netherlands in 1747 he first became a W.I.C. director, then the presiding director, and finally the representative of the Prince-Stadtholder Willem V in his capacity of governor-general of the W.I.C. By then De Petersen was the most powerful and influential figure in the running of the Dutch Atlantic slave trade and the Dutch West Indian colonies.

When Jacob de Petersen requested his dismissal as director-general of the Gold Coast in 1746, he had a clear idea about the remainder of his career. For starters he set up a private slave trading expedition. He hired the private slave trading ship Watervliet and prepared for a slave voyage that was to transport more than 700 enslaved men and women to Suriname. He travelled on the ship himself. The fortunes of the voyage are currently a matter of academic research.

The records show that in Paramaribo, Suriname, Jacob de Petersen changed ships and boarded the ship Jalousie, with his servants. It is very well possible that Presto and Fortuin travelled with Jacob de Petersen to the Netherlands in 1747, together with a richly adorned hammock, as present for the Princess Carolina.

Gouvernment Journal Suriname, General Jacob de Petersen and servants on board the ship Jalousie

 

Jacob de Petersen's Gold Coast

So now we know where to start: on Jacob de Petersen's Gold Coast. To recreate Presto's early years and experience in Ghana, we have to look for the Dutch Gold Coast as it was in Jacob de Petersen's time, the period between 1740 and 1747. Who was there, what did it look like, what activities were going on? And: how do you make such a reconstruction in an environment that has changed beyond recognition?

In the oncoming blogs we will address these questions. However, we cannot solve them alone, and all contributions from our virtual fellow travellers and followers are welcome. What do you think about Presto's early years?

Preparations for a special field trip

Presto returns to Ghana

Between 9 and 20 August, Annemieke van der Vegt and I will undertake a field trip to Ghana to investigate the early life of the African boy Presto, or Christiaan van der Vegt. For the backgrounds of this visit see the Introduction page.

The trip includes visits to and research in Accra, the current capital of Ghana, the town of Elmina, from 1637 to 1872 the Dutch headquarters in Ghana, the important urban centre Axim in the Western Region, the stilt-village Nzelezu, the Ankobra River, and several other places, which (may) have played a part in Presto's life.

Watch this space for regular updates on the trip and results of our research. When in Ghana I will try to add posts on a daily basis, internet availability permitting.

Background picture

The background picture of this blog is a lithograph of the town of Elmina. It was taken from the north wall of the castle of St. George d'Elmina around 1870, at the end of the Dutch presence. The Dutch flag can be seen flying from the tower of Fort Coenraadsburg on St. Jago Hill. Some 135 years earlier Presto was in Elmina and could have stood on this spot. His view would have been different. The houses were not there yet. Most of these date from the 1840s. In Presto's time this was a sandy area with a footpath running through it, some small huts, a wide beach on the right, and scrubs and trees on the hill-side to the left. Fort Coenraadsburg was there, however, and a landmark Presto may have kept in his mind for some time, also because this fort, together with Elmina castle, is the last he would have seen of the his mother country when he departed from Elmina on his voyage to Europe.

By the 1980s, the big corner-house in the middle of the picture had fallen in disuse and was a total ruin. The house is called Bridge House as it stands next to the bridge crossing the Benya Lagoon (not in view). In the late 1990s, Elmina businessman Paa Kwesi Nduom, whose wife's family owned the house, had it demolished and replaced by a new building which is in use as a hotel: Coconut Grove Bridge House. The terrace of the hotel will be a vantage point for Annemieke and I to discuss the history of the town and to view the fishing activities.