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The Danish Ban on the Atlantic Slave Trade and Denmark's African Colonial Ambitions, 1787–1807

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2010

Daniel P. Hopkins
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Extract

On 16 March 1792, King Christian VII of Denmark, his own incompetent hand guided by that of the young Crown Prince Frederik (VI), signed decree banning both the importation of slaves into the Danish West Indies (now the United States Virgin Islands) and their export from the Danish establishments on the Guinea Coast, in what is now Ghana. To soften the blow to the planters of the Danish West Indies and to secure the continued production of sugar, the law was not to take effect for ten years. In the meantime, imports of slaves, and of women especially, would actually encouraged by state loans and favourable tariffs, so as, it was hoped, render the slave population capable of reproducing itself naturally thereafter.

Type
Articles
Information
Itinerario , Volume 25 , Issue 3-4 , November 2001 , pp. 154 - 184
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 2001

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References

Notes

1 The ban was announced in Minerva I (March 1792); R-d G–e [Rosenstand-Goiske, Philip], ‘Brev fra landet’, Borger-Vennen 42 (15 June 1792) [331]–337, on 332Google Scholar; [Sneedorff, Frederik], ‘Breve fra en dansk reisende’ XXIX, London, 4 May 1792, Minerva II (May 1792) 257–272, on 265Google Scholar; Gøbel, Erik, ‘The Danish Edict of 16th March 1792 to Abolish the Slave Trade’ in manuscript; his article has since been published in: Everaert, Jan, Parmentier, Jan and Spanoghe, Sander eds, Orbis el orbem. Liber amicmum (Ghent 2001) 251–264Google Scholar. Trier, C.A., in ‘Det dansk-vestindiske Negerindførselsforbud af 1792’, Historisk Tidsskrift 7th Series, 5 (1904–1905) 405–508, on 447Google Scholar, appears to have found this play in the press rather disappointing.

2 Vibæk, Jens, Dansk Vestindien 1755–1848, Brøndsted, Johannes ed., Vore gamle tropekolonier 2 (2nd ed.; Copenhagen 1966) 162Google Scholar; Christensen, Harry, for example, in a review of Christian Degn, Die Schimmelmanns im atlanlischen Dreieckshandel (Neumūnster 1984 [1975])Google Scholar, in Personalhistorisk Tidsskrift 16th Series, 3 (1975) 210–212, on 210, wrote that ‘the way to ending the slave trade, slavery, and finally the colonial regime was both embarrassing and distressing’, and that it was only in 1917, when Denmark sold the Danish West Indies to the United States, that ‘we could again breathe easily’. All translations from Danish are by the author of this article; the original punctuation and capitalisation have been altered where it was found advisable.

3 For example, Feldæk, Ole, Tiden 1730–1814, Christensen, Aksel E. et al. eds, Danmarks historie 4 (Copenhagen 1982) 44–5.Google Scholar

4 See Hernaes, Per O.'s recent work, ‘The Volume of the Danish Transatlantic Slave Trade 1660–1806’, in his Slaves, Danes, and African Coast Society (Trondheim 1995) 129–303.Google Scholar

5 Nørregård, Georg, Danish Settlements in West Africa 1658–1850, Mammen, Sigurd, transl.(Boston 1966) 173, 175Google Scholar; Jeppesen, Henrik, ‘Danske plantageanlæg på Guldkysten 1788–1850’, Geografisk Tidsskrift 65 (1966) 48–72Google Scholar (followed by an English version, ‘Danish Plantations on the Gold Coast’, 73–88) on 48–49, 73–74.

6 Nørregård (p. 175), quoted in Green-Pedersen, Svend E., ‘The Economic Considerations Behind the Danish Abolition of the Negro Slave Trade’ in: Gemery, Henry A. and Hogendorn, Jan S. eds, The Uncommon Market: Essays in the Economic History of the Atlantic Slave Trade, (New York 1979) 399–418, on 411.Google Scholar

7 Generaltoldkammeret (the General Chamber of Customs) [the archival group hereinafter cited as GTK], Dokumenter vedrørende Kommissionen for Negerhandelens bedre Indretning & Ophævelse m. m. 1783–1806, Box II, Christian Rex, 5 August 1791, constituting the commission, whose charge, despite its name, was to craft legislation ending die slave trade: Joseph Evans Loftin, Jr, ‘The Abolition of the Danish Atlantic Slave Trade’ (unpublished dissertation, Louisiana State University 1977) 86. All archival documents cited, unless otherwise indicated, are to be found among die Chamber of Customs's West Indies and Guinea papers at the Rigsarkiv, the Danish National Archives, in Copenhagen.

8 Schimmelmann's humanitarianism has been a matter of some debate. He was financially involved in die slave trade and himself owned several of the largest sugar plantations in the Danish West Indies: he actually stood to benefit by ten years' state subsidy of slave imports. Nevertheless, the slave-trade commission's recommendation to the crown late in 1791 makes clear that Schimmelmann's and the commission's ultimate aim was die abolition of slavery itself; the ban on the Atlantic trade was an important step along die way. It was at least in part the commission's fear that hastier measures would do more political harm than good that led them to act with such circumspection: Loftin, 53–54, 64–65, 72–74, 100–101; Green-Pedersen, Svend Erik, ‘The History of the Danish Negro Slave Trade’, Revue Française d'Histoire d'Outre-Mer 62 (1975) 196–220, on 215 (note 46), 216Google Scholar; Green-Pedersen, , ‘Dansk-vestindisk slavehandel og dens ophævelse. Konklusionerefter udenlandske arkiv- og biblioteksstudier’ in: Feldbæk, Ole and Thomsen, Niels eds, Festskrift til Kristof Glamann (Odense 1983) 51–70, on 61Google Scholar; Vibæk, 166–67; see also Trier, 429.

9 Green-Pedersen, ‘Economic Considerations’, 412; see also Green-Pedersen, Sv.E., ‘Danmarks ophævelse af negerslavehandelen. Omkring tilblivelsen af forordningen af 16. marts 1792», Arkiv 3/1 (1969) 19–37, on 31.Google Scholar

10 Green-Pedersen, ‘Danmarks ophævelse af negerslavehandelen’, 27, and ‘Economic Considerations’, 407.

11 Dokumenter vedrørende Kommissionen for Negerhandelens bedre Indretning og Ophaevelse m. m. 1783–1806, box II, the commission's ‘Allerunterthānigste Vorstellung’, 28 December 1791; Loftin, 88–130, particularly 128–129; Gøbel, ‘The Danish Edict of 16th March 1792’, ms. The author is very grateful to Erik Gøbel and Ulla Mark Svensson for their kind help with this passage from German.

12 Green-Pedersen, ‘Economic Considerations’, 412; see Trier, 481–508, and Thaarup, Frederik, Udførlig Vejledning til det danske Monarkies Statistik saaledes som samme var i Slulningen af Aar 1813 6 (Copenhagen 1819) 679–698.Google Scholar

13 Vestindiske Forestillinger og Resolutioner, representation of 15 May 1804, ‘Angaaende en Ansøgning fra nogle Plantere paa St. Croix, om Forlængelse af Tilladelsen til Negres Indførsel’, royal resolution of 25 May 1804; Thaarup, Udførlig vejledning, 687–689; Trier, 500–502. Loftin altogether ignored the Chamber of Customs's African concerns in his discussion of this representation: 251, 254–261.

14 The Africanist Justesen, Ole, in his authoritative ‘Danish Settlements on the Gold Coast in the Nineteenth Century’, Scandinavian Journal of History 4 (1979) 3–33, on 19CrossRefGoogle Scholar, took care to lay stress on the ‘relatively limited extent and effect of these efforts’.

15 Knap, Henning Højlund, ‘Danskerne og slaveriet. Negerslavedebatten i Danmark indtil 1792’ in: Jensen, Peter Hoxcer et al. eds, Dansk kolonihistorie. Indføring og studier (Århus 1983) 153–174, on 169.Google Scholar

16 Isert, like Schimmelmann, was a native speaker of German, and his Reise nach Guinea was first published in German, but it was soon translated into Danish, as well as into Swedish, French, and Dutch: Letters on West Africa and the Slave Trade. Paul Erdmann Isert's Journey to Guinea and the Caribbean Islands in Columbia (1788), Selena Axelrod Winsnes transl. (Oxford 1992) 3–4, 8, 10–12, quote on 190. The book is generally acknowledged to have had a substantial impact in Copenhagen: Poul Ulrich Jensen, ‘Dansk Guinea’ in: Hoxcer Jensen et al., Dansk kolonihistorie, 79–90, on 85; Knap, 157, 169; Nørregård, 173.

17 In Schimmelmannske papirer vedk. Kommissionerne betræffende Guinea og Negerhandelen, samt forskellige Vestindiske papirer, 1778–1809. A number of the documents in this bundle of Schimmelmann's papers were removed almost half a century later and copied and circulated among the members of the Guinea Commission, which was seated by Frederik VI in 1833 to advise him on the disposition of the Danish possessions on the Guinea Coast. The Guinea Commission collected a great mass of official records into a series of files, on the fronts of which were numbered lists, or ‘designations’ of the enclosed documents, which were also marked with these designation numbers. The quoted title of this document is the Guinea Commission’s characterisation of it in its Designation 2, a copy of which ended up among Schimmelmann's papers when the documents it contained were returned to their original archival place. The attribution of the document to Kirstein and Isert is to be found in another copy of Designation 2 among the Guinea Commission's archives: d. Guineiske Kommission af 9.Januar 1833 [cited hereinafter as GK], Box II, in a file marked ‘Den Isertske Tractat m. m.’ See the register of the Guinea Commission's papers, in English, on 116–120 of Olsen, Poul Erik's ‘Supplement’ in: J. Reindorf comp., Scandinavians in Africa: Guide to Materials Relating to Ghana in the Danish National Archives, (Oslo 1980) 110–120.Google Scholar

18 The Guinea Commission's secretary made abstracts (or concise translations into Danish) of many of the documents the commission examined and copied them into two more or less identical copy-books in green bindings; these are cited below as the Green Books, as the Guinea Commission itself referred to them. This paraphrase is taken from the Green Books, Designation 2/1.

19 Schimmelmannske papirer vedk. Kommissionerne betræffende Guinea og Negerhandelen, an unsigned, undated document in German (Designation 2/3); GK, Green Books, Designation 2/3.

20 Scandinavians in Africa, 11; Nørregård, 149–150. The firm started its career under the name Pingel, Meyer, Praetorius, and Company.

21 Schimmelmannske papirer vedk. Kommissionerne betraffende Guinea og Negerhandelen, an unsigned, undated document (Designation 2/4); GK, Box II, Den Isertske Tractat m. m., Designation 2. This paraphrase is taken from the Danish abstract in GK, Green Books. The document was published in Danish ten years later in: Thaarup, Frederik ed., Archiv for Statistik, Politik og huusholdnings videnskaber 3 (Copenhagen 1797–1798) 233–239Google Scholar, where it was dated lO July 1788, and attributed to Schimmelmann and Christian Brandt, of the Chancellery; Thaarup's version is translated into English in Letters on West Africa, 235–238: quotes on 236–237.

22 Schimmelmannske papirer vedk. Kommissionerne betræffende Guinea og Negerhandelen, an unsigned, undated document [Schimmelmann and Brandt, lO July 1788, to Kiφge]; copy in GK, Box II, Den Isertske Tractat m. m. There is an excerpt of the letter in Thaarup, Archiv for statistik, 239–240, and this is translated in Letters on West Africa, 238–239. See also GK, Green Books, Designation 2/5. The author thanks Ulla Svensson and Erik Gφbel for their reading of this passage.

23 In 1797 and 1798, Frederik Thaarup, the historian and statistician, published nine documents regarding Isert's colonial undertaking (Thaarup, Archiv for statistik, 231–267). Most of these were manuscripts now to be found among Schimmelmann's slave-trade-commission papers, and the publication can probably be taken to have had a semi-official character. The document cited here is the only one of the nine that Thaarup labeled an excerpt, and he omitted this rather crucial passage in the original on the advantages of African plantations. Years later (in Thaarup, Udfφrlig vejledning, 696), he thanked Philip Rosenstand-Goiske, the head of the Chamber of Customs's colonial office, for providing him with official information regarding the history of the ban on the slave trade, and the documents published in the 1790s may also have come to him from Rosenstand-Goiske, who had fought staunchly for the ban. Perhaps Rosenstand-Goiske - if indeed it was he who supplied Thaarup with copies of the documents – had thought it impolitic to publish Schimmelmann's letter to Kiφge quite as it stood. See Loftin, 247–254; Kringelbach, G.N., Den civiladdministrations embedsetat 1660–1848 (reprint Lyngby 1977 [1889]) 196.Google Scholar

24 Nφrregård, 152.

25 Thaarup, Archiv for statistik, 240; see Letters on West Africa, 239.

26 Norregård, 173–174; Finanskollegiet, Diverse Sager, bundle 1144, Papirer og Dokumenter vedr. Kolonien Friderichsnopel, 1792, 1794, the colony's accounts journal, dated 24 December 1792, covering the period from 1 December 1788 to the end of October 1789.

27 Thaarup, Archiv for statistik, 241–248; Letters on West Africa, 241–245. There is a copy of the letter in Schimmelmannske papirer vedk. Kommissionerne betræffende Guinea og Negerhandelen; what may be Isert's original is filed at Finants Ministeriet, Kolonial Kontor, Guineiske Journalsager number 311/1891.

28 Thaarup, Archiv for statistik, 242; see Letters on West Africa, 242. These measures are roughly calculated from the Danish Mil, which was somewhat over four and a half English statute miles, or about seven and a half kilometers: see Hopkins, Daniel Price, ‘The Danish Cadastral Survey of St. Croix, 1733–1754’ (unpublished dissertation, Louisiana State University 1987) 26Google Scholar, and Letters on West Africa, 248.

29 Nφrregård, 174; Thaarup, Archiv for statistik, 248–251. What may be the original of this treaty is filed at Finants Ministeriet, Kolonial Kontor, Guineiske Journalsager number 311/1891. (The place Isert had chosen for his plantation colony was close to Akuapem's boundary with Krobbo, and his African counterpart is described in the treaty as the leader of Krobbo, rather than of Akuapem.)

30 Thaarup, Archiv for statistik, 242–243; see Letters on West Africa, 242.

31 Thaarup, Archiv for statistik, 265.

32 Schimmelmann, 7 July 1789, to Christian, Duke Frederik of Schleswig-Holstein in: Bobé, Louis ed., Efterladte papirer fra den Reventlowske Familiekreds i tidsrummet 1779–1827 (Copenhagen 1895–1931) 6–7.Google Scholar

33 Countess Charlotte Schimmelmann, Copenhagen, 9 January 1790, to Countess Louise Stolberg in: Efterladte papirer fra den Reventlowske Familiekreds, 120–121.

34 Thaarup, Archiv for statistik, 264–68.

35 Schimmelmannske papirer vedk. Kommissionerne betræffende Guinea og Negerhandelen, Governor Kiφge's successor Johann Kipnasse, Christiansborg, 11 March 1789, to Schimmelmann and Brandt, copy.

36 Schimmelmannske papirer vedk. Kommissionerne betraeffende Guinea og Negerhandelen, Flindt, Copenhagen, 19 March 1791, to Schimmelmann; quote from GK, Green Books, Designation 2/9. See also Finanskollegiet, Diverse Sager, Colonien Friderichs Nopels regnskab fra lmo November 1789 til Ultimo December 1792, first section of a protocol-book numbered 1149, headed ‘Journal for Colonien Friderichsnopel i Aquapim […]’. Governor BJφrn prepared this record and sent it and associated papers to Schimmelmann some years after the fact: see Finanskollegiet, Diverse Sager, bundle 1144, Papirer og Dokumenter vedr. Kolonien Friderichsnopel, 1792, 1794, two cover letters from Bjφrn, Copenhagen, 30 April 1794, to Schimmelmann.

37 Schimmelmannske papirer vedk. Kommissionerne betræffende Guinea og Negerhandelen, Kipnasse, Christiansborg, 11 March 1789, to Schimmelmann and Brandt, copy; GK, Green Books, Designation 2/8.

38 The Guinea Entrepreneurs had farmed out at least a portion of the slave trade through the Danish establishments to Bjφrn and a group of associates: Nφrregård, 153, 157.

39 Finanskollegiet, Colonien Friderichs Nopels regnskab fra lmo November 1789 til Ultimo December 1792, last section of protocol-book numbered 1149, under the heading ‘Prottocol for Collonien Friderichsnopels i Guinea’, consisting of copies of correspondence, Schimmelmann and Brandt, Pro Memoria, Copenhagen, 14 July 1789. The author is grateful to Ulla Svensson for her help with this document.

40 Prottocol for Collonien Friderichsnopels, Bjφrn, Honfleur, Pro Memoria, 22 August 1789.

41 Prottocol for Collonien Friderichsnopels, Bjφrn, Christiansborg, 20 September 1790, to Schimmelmann and Brandt. See, however, Bjφrn's earlier rather glowing characterisation, published in Thaarup, Archiv for statistik, 204.

42 Bjφrn had kept a garden when he had been the commandant at Fort Fredensborg, between Christiansborg and the river, in 1779: Thaarup, Archiv for statistik, 209.

43 Schimmelmannske papirer vedk. Kommissionerne betræffende Guinea og Negerhandelen, Peder Meyer, Frydenlund paa Tubrekue i Guinea, 18 September 1790, to Schimmelmann and Brandt; Nφrregård, 175.

44 Prottocol for Collonien Friderichsnopels, Bjφrn, Christiansborg, 20 September 1790, to Schimmelmann and Brandt; see Schimmelmannske papirer vedk. Kommissionerne betraeffende Guinea og Negerhandelen, N. Lather, Christiansborg, to Schimmelmann and Brandt, 16 September 1790, and an application directly to the king of the same date. Lather asked for twenty thousand rigsdaler, which he undertook to repay in colonial produce within six years.

45 From GK, Green Books, Designation 2/9, Flindt, Copenhagen, 19 March 1791, to Schimmelmann; the letter is in Schimmelmannske papirer vedk. Kommissionerne betræffende Guinea og Negerhandelen.

46 Norregård, 175–176; Loftin, 72, 74–76; Trier, 416, 420–421; Knap, 154.

47 Loftin, 86–87; Trier, 423–424.

48 Trier, 427–428.

49 Prottocol for Collonien Friderichsnopels, Schimmelmann, Copenhagen, 15 September 1791, to Bjφrn, copy. The author is grateful to Ulla Svensson for her reading of this document.

50 Vestindiske lokalarkiver, Vestindiske Regiering, Referatprotokol, 498/1792, von Rohr, 15 May 1792. The entry refers to a royal resolution of 2 November 1791, communicated to the West Indian government by Schimmelmann personally on 30 November 1791; Finanskollegiet, correspondence journal [FJ] files [FJS], ad fFJS 1345/1792, a draft, dated 26 October 1792, of a subsequent representation from the Finance Collegium to the crown, in which Schimmelmann identifies himself as the immediate agent of royal policy in this affair; Fonden ad Usus Publicos, Kongelige Resolutioner 1792 og 1793, No. 7, representation of 14 June, resolution 6 July 1792.

51 Kommercekollegiet, Diverse, Varia, 1774–1792 og udat., Korrespondance vedrφrende v. Rohrs undersφgelser angående bolmuldskulturen i Vestindien, 1786–1787; Kommercekollegiet, correspondence journal entries 1027/1782 and 882/1784 and correspondence journal files 854/1786, Juliusvon Rohr, Pro Memoria, St Croix, 31 May 1786. This expedition had been funded by the Commerce Collegium, of which Schimmelmann, Ernst was also the head: ‘Schimmelmann, Heinrich Ernst’ in: Engelstoft, Povl ed., Dansk biografisk leksikon (2nd ed.; Copenhagen 1933–1944).Google Scholar

52 GTK, Vestindiske forestillinger og resolutioner, 1791 and 1792, royal resolution of 13 April 1791.

53 Vestindiske forestillinger og resolutioner, 1791 and 1792, rescript, 28 October 1791, to Governor Bjφrn.

54 Over the next year and a half, von Rohr spent well over ten thousand rigsdaler: Vestindiske lokalarkiver, Vestindiske Regiering, Referatprotokol, 498/1792, von Rohr, 15 May 1792; GTK, West Indian correspondence journal [VJ] 531/1792; VJ 8/1793; FJ 1189/1793, royal resolution of 7 August 1793. See also FJ 1345/1792, FJ 664/1793, FJ 928/1793, FJ 1608/1793, FJ 1723/1793, FJ 976/1794, FJ 1722/1794.

55 GTK, Guinea correspondence journal [GJ] files [GJS] 90/1799, Flindt, [Copenhagen], 28 October 1799.

56 Fonden ad usus publicos. Aklmæssig bidrag til belysning af dens virksomhed 1 (Copenhagen 1897) 140–141; Fonden ad Usus Publicos, Missive-Protokol, five letters, 7 November, 11 November, 18 November, 25 November, and 6 December 1791, ordering funds released to Flindt; ‘Schimmelmann, Heinrich Ernst’, Dansk biografisk leksikon, 2nd ed.

57 Dokumenter vedrorende Kommissionen for Negerhandelens bedre Indretning og Ophaevelse m. m. 1783–1806, box II, ‘Allerunterthänigste Vorstellung’, 28 December 1791; Loftin, 128–129.

58 Minerva IV (December 1791) 322. See Jette D. Sφllinge and Niels Thomsen, De danshe aviser 1634–1991 1 (Odense [1988]) 121. It has been said of Minerva that ‘nowhere can a more comprehensive impression be obtained of what the Enlightenment in Denmark-Norway thought and felt’: ‘Pram, Christen Henriksen’, Dansk biografisk leksikon, 2nd ed.

59 Minerva I (March 1792) 435.

60 Gφbel, ‘The Danish Edict of 16th March 1792’, ms.

61 ‘Udtog af forestilling til kongen, angaaende negerhandelens afskaffelse, meddeelt af den til denne sags undersφgelse nedsatte commissions-medlem, Hr. Secretaire Kirstein’, Minerva II (April 1792) 43–86; Green-Pedersen, ‘The History of the Danish Negro Slave Trade’, 216.

62 Minerva II (May 1792) 214–243, unattributed introduction on 214–215.

63 ‘Breve fra en dansk reisende’.

64 ‘Sneedorff, Frederik’, Dansk biografisk leksikon, 2nd ed.; the letter was reproduced in Frederik Sneedorffs samlede skrifter, Part 1 (Copenhagen 1794) 482–496.

65 Minerva II (May 1792) 215.

66 ‘Breve fra en dansk reisende’, 257; also quoted in Trier, 409.

67 Published in London in 1791.

68 Muncaster, John Pennington, Historical Sketches of the Slave Trade and of Its Effects in Africa, Addressed to the People of Great-Britain (London 1792).Google Scholar

69 Curtin, Philip D., The Image of Africa 1 (Madison 1964) 209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

70 ‘Breve fra en dansk reisende’, 261–262.

71 ‘Om negerhandelen. Til Herr Secretair Kirstein’, Minerva II (June 1792) 311–378Google Scholar. The attribution is by Nyerup, N. in: Almindeligt register over maanedskriflet Minerva fra dels begyndelse medjuliie maaned 1785 til del 18de aarhundredes udgang (Copenhagen 1801)Google Scholar;’ Pram, Christen Henriksen’, Dansk biografisk leksikon, 2nd ed.

72 ‘Om negerhandelen. Til Herr Secretair Kirstein’, 319–320.

73 Oeder wrote on the legal status of the Danish peasantry in the 1760s and 1770s, and the adscription of agricultural labourers to the land had been abolished in 1788; Martfeldt's influential essay on the grain trade was published in 1785: ‘Oeder, Georg Christian’ and ‘Martfeldt, Christian’, Dansk biografisk leksikon, 2nd ed.; ‘Stavnsbaand’, Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon (Copenhagen 1915–1930).

74 ‘Brev fra landet’, 335. The paper was at this time still edited by W.H.F. Abrahamson, but Rosenstand-Goiske was doubtless closely involved in it: he was one of the editors, with Frederik Thaarup, from 1792 to 1795: Sφllinge and Thomsen, De danske aviser 1634–1991, 125; ‘Rosenstand-Goiske, Philip’, Dansk biografisk leksikon, 2nd ed. Jens Vibaek, 180–181, looking back on all this from the detached post-colonial Danish perspective of the early 1950s, was gleefully cynical about these ‘idealistic’ African colonial notions. He simply ignored their political significance in his account of the Danish ban on the slave trade and its reception in cultured circles in Copenhagen.

75 Norregard, 130.

76 Curtin, 91–95.

77 Yarak, Larry W., Asante and the Dutch, 1744–1873 (Oxford 1990) 101–104Google Scholar; Reynolds, Edward, Trade and Economic Change on the Gold Coast, 1807–1874 (London 1974) 63, 65.Google Scholar

78 Crowder, Michael, West Africa under Colonial Rule (Evanston 1968) 25Google Scholar; Curtin, 146–147.

79 Nerregard, 176.

80 FJS 1605/1792, draft of instructions for Olrick, which were apparently laid before the king on 18 October 1792.

81 Norregård, 177.

82 VJ 877/1793 (also GJ 5/1794), Olrick, [Christiansborg], 25 July 1793; Schimmelmannske papirer vedk. Kommissionerne betræffende Guinea og Negerhandelen, Flindt, Copenhagen, 19 March 1800, to Schimmelmann; GK, Green Books, Designation 2/13; GJ 9/ 1800.

83 Schimmelmannske papirer vedk. Kommissionerne betræffende Guinea og Negerhandelen, Flindt, Collonien Friderichstæd, 22 July 1793, to Schimmelmann, copy, among duplicates of documents sent to Copenhagen by Olrick on 22 July 1793; Degn, 237.

84 GJS 9/1800, two letters from von Rohr, New London, 20 December 1792, one to Jens N. Flindt and Gilbert Woodard, the other to Governor Bjφrn. The author is grateful to Ulla Svensson for her reading of these letters.

85 Schimmelmannske papirer vedk. Kommissionerne betræffende Guinea og Negerhandelen, Flindt, Collonien Friderichstaed, 22 July 1793, to Schimmelmann; Vestindiske lokalarkiver, bundle marked in pencil: ‘Dele af Skifteprotokol fra Christiansted. St. Croix. 1796’, folio 265; VJ 442/1795, Lindemann [in the Danish West Indies], 7 May 1795.

86 Schimmelmannske papirer vedk. Kommissionerne betræffende Guinea og Negerhandelen, Flindt, Copenhagen, 19 March 1800, to Schimmelmann; GK, Green Books, Designation 2/13; GJ 9/1800.

87 GJ 18/1794, Interim Gov. Hager, [Christiansborg,] 8 October 1793; GJ 86/1794, Hager, 30 December 1793.

88 Norregård, 178; Schimmelmannske papirer vedk. Kommissionerne betraeffende Guinea og Negerhandelen, Schimmelmann and Scheel, 23 August 1794, to Hager, copy (Designation 2/11).

89 FJ 1660 and 1662/1792; Nφrregård, 177.

90 GJS 126/1795, Moe, Copenhagen, 20 July 1795.

91 ad GJ 218/1796, 30 May 1796, the slave-trade commission's recommendation of 11 May, approved by the regent 18 May 1796, copy (Designation 1/2), filed at GJS 226/1836 among papers collected by the Guinea Commission in the 1830s.

92 The Chamber of Customs's Guinea correspondence copy-book, letters to Governor Wrisberg and the Council on the Coast, 30 November 1796 (Nos 347, 349, 363). The crown's commitment to supporting private agricultural enterprise on the Coast was reiterated in 1797: a copy of the Chamber's letter to the Council on the Coast of 9 June 1797 (Designation 4, Letter A), is filed at GJS 144/1828 among papers collected by the Guinea Commission.

93 Hopkins, Daniel, ‘Danish Natural History and African Colonialism at the Close of the Eighteenth Century: Peter Thonning's “Scientific Journey” to the Guinea Coast, 1799–1803’, Archives of Natural History 26/3 (1999) 369–418, on 373.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

94 ‘Cultur’, in the sense ‘agriculture’. Guinea copy-book, to the Royal Surgical Academy, 8 October and 7 November 1796.

95 Hopkins, ‘Danish natural history and African colonialism’, 378–82.

96 GJS 385/1798, the Council on the Coast, 6 February 1798, and enclosures; GJ 19/1799, the slave-trade commission, 10 May 1799, and GJ 41/1799, royal resolution, 12 June 1799.

97 Hopkins, ‘Danish Natural History and African Colonialism’, 391–392, 411–412 (notes).

98 Loftin, 228–229; Vibæk, 186; Negerhandelens Afskaffelse betraaffende (Korrespondance med Kommissioner etc.) 1788–1847, a duplicate of the Chamber of Customs's West Indian correspondence journal file [VJS] No. 140/1803, the West Indian administration, 30 September 1802, conveying the planters’ petition; GTK, Vestindiske Forestillinger og Resolutioner, representation of 15 May 1804, resolution 25 May 1804, ‘Angaaende en Ansφgning fra nogle Plantere paa St. Croix, om Forlængelse af Tilladelsen til Negres Indfφrsel’.

99 Loftin, 232–233; Negerhandelens Afskaffelse betræffende, the slave-trade commission, 5 April 1803, to the Chamber of Customs, sending back the planters’ petition; the Chamber's Forestilling of 15 May 1804.

100 Hopkins, , ‘Danish Natural History and African Colonialism’; Daniel Hopkins, ‘Peter Thonning's Map of Danish Guinea and Its Use in Colonial Administration and Atlantic Diplomacy, 1801–1890’, Cartographica 35/3–4 (1998) 99–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

101 Departementet for udenlandske Anliggender, Gruppeordnede sager, Guinea, 1775–1847, Box 872 [DfuA, GG], ad GJ 434/1803, Peter Thonning, [Copenhagen], December 1803, ‘Indberetning om det danske Territorium i Guinea fornemmelig med hensyn til nærvaerende Kultur af indiske Kolonial Produkter eller Beqvemhed for samme’, quotes in § 43.

102 Thonning's ‘Indberetning’, § 45.

103 GJ 434/1803: Thonning's report was sent to the slave-trade commission on 28 January 1804.

104 Rentekammeret, 2214.86, P. Thonning, Copenhagen, a résumé dated 20 December 1809.

105 Loftin, 233–234; Negerhandelens Afskaffelse betræffende, the slave-trade commission, 9 April 1804, original, to the Chamber of Customs.

106 GJS 226/1836, Designation 1/1, an unsigned and undated 82-page document; Negerhandelens Afskaffelse betræffende, Waltersdorff, Copenhagen, 21 April 1804, to the slavetrade commission, with quotes in German from Schimmelmann's plan. An annotation on a copy of the resolution of 25 May 1804, conveyed to the slave-trade commission on 2 June 1804, in Negerhandelens Afskaffelse betræffende, indicates that the attachments mentioned in the representation were retained by Frederik Moltke, the head of the Chamber of Customs; Schimmelmann's German original may thus have been permanently incorporated among Moltke's personal papers; its whereabouts, if it has survived, are unknown.

107 It appears that it has been assumed that Schimmelmann's plan for a colonial institute was based on a proposal submitted from the West Indies in 1791 by Hans West, who is best-known for his Bidrag til beskrivelse over St. Croix […] (Copenhagen 1793). There is a great deal in Schimmelmann's plan, however, that is not touched on in West's proposal: see Negerhandelens Afskaffelse betraeffende, ad VJ 730/1791 (26 August 1791), West, ‘Plan til ved et enkelt Fors at befordre Mark-Negernes Oplysning og Formildelse i Kaar m. v. paa Eilandet St. Croix’.

108 Negerhandelens Afskaffelse betræffende, the slave-trade commission, 9 April 1804, to the Chamber of Customs.

109 GTK, Vestindiske Forestillinger og Resolutioner, representation of 15 May 1804.

110 Trier, 495.

111 Loftin drew his paraphrase of Schimmelmann's plan from the account published in 1819 by Thaarup, who appears to have consulted the Chamber of Customs's representation rather than Schimmelmann's plan: 235–238, quote on 238; Thaarup, Udfφrlig vejledning 683–689.

112 Vibæk, 187. In documenting his account of the abolition of the slave trade, Vibaelig;k, 340, made blanket reference to the various archives of the slave-trade commission, but identified no individual documents.

113 Green-Pedersen, ‘Economic Considerations’, 410.

114 The representation of 15 May 1804; see also drafts of the representation in Negerhandelens Afskaffelse betraeffende.

115 Loftin, 260; Trier, 501–502; Axel Linvald, Kronprins Frederih og hans Regering 1797–1807 1 (Copenhagen 1923 [reprinted in 1978]) 327.

116 Negerhandelens Afskaffelse betraffende, royal resolution of 25 May 1804; VJ 591/1804.

117 Loftin, 278–279; Trier, 506–508.

118 Rentekammeret, 2214.86, P. Thonning, Copenhagen, a résumé dated 20 December 1809; Ludv.J.F. Moltke, ‘Bidrag til Geheimraad Frederik Moltkes levnetsbeskrivelse’, Historisk Tidsskrift, 4th Series, 2 (1870–1872) 1–128, on 47–48, reports that Thonning's plan was considerably reworked between 1806 and 1809; Hopkins, ‘Danish Natural History and African Colonialism’, 399–400, 413 (n. 120); Haandskriftsamlingen, Gruppe XV, Speciel dansk-norsk personalhistorie, Sφ-Th, Thonning, ‘Optegnelser vedrφrende familien Thonning’, Generation III, typescript, 8; Thaarup, Udfφrlig vejledning, 698.

119 GTK, Sekretariatet, Frederik VI's resolutioner og rescripter vedkommende General-toldkammerets sager 1808–1839, No. 29, 17 October 1815.

120 Hopkins, ‘Danish Natural History and African Colonialism’, 404–405; Justesen, Ole, ‘Kolonierne i Afrika’ in: Ole Feldbaek and Ole Justesen, Kolonierne i Asien og Afrika (Copenhagen 1980) 289–468, on 434, 437.Google Scholar

121 Olsen, 116.

122 GK, Allerunderdanigst Betaenkning, Wedel (signing also for Schφnheyder), 27 June 1848; GJS 536/1848.

123 Justesen, ‘Kolonierne i Afrika’, 441.

124 Jensen, Hans, De danske stœderforsamlingers historie 1830–1848, Part 1 (Copenhagen 1931) 370–373, 376–377Google Scholar; ‘Budgettet’ in: Feedrelandet, 16 October 1835.

125 GTK, Guineisk Resolutions Protokol, 1816–1850, 2 November 1840 (GJ 1040/1840), regarding a royal resolution of 2 November 1840, on a representation by the Finance Minister of 14 August 1840.

126 GJS 536/1848.

127 Norregard, 222.

128 Nerregard, 224; Boateng, E.A., A Geography of Ghana (Cambridge 1959) 159.Google ScholarPubMed

129 Reynolds, Edward E., ‘Abolition and Economic Change on the Gold Coast’ in: The Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade, Eltis, David and Walvin, James eds (Madison 1981) 141–151, on 143–145Google Scholar; Boateng, 159.

130 GK, Allerunderdanigst Betenkning, § 13, ‘Oversigt over den Kaffe og Bomulds-Dyrkning, der hidtil er foretaget i danske Guinea’.