Latest / The Atlantic Slave Trade: Empire Built on Human Suffering — Fexingo History / The Danish Slave Trade: A Small Empire's Big Role
Transcript
- Lucas: We've covered a lot of ground in this series on the Atlantic slave trade—British, French, Portuguese, Spanish, American. But there's one European player we haven't touched yet, and it's a surprising one. Denmark. Luna: Denmark? The small Scandinavian kingdom? Lucas: Exactly. Denmark had a colonial empire that stretched from the Gold Coast of West Africa to the Caribbean islands of St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix. And for over a century, the Danish West India Company ran a brutal triangular trade that transported tens of thousands of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic. Lucas: It started in the 1650s, when Denmark established a small colony on the Gold Coast—what's now Ghana. They built Fort Christiansborg in 1661 near present-day Accra. That fort became the headquarters of Danish operations in Africa, and it still stands today as a major tourist site, though most visitors don't connect it to Denmark's slave-trading past. Luna: Wait, so Denmark had a fort in Africa? I always thought of the Gold Coast forts as British or Dutch. Lucas: The Danes were there alongside them. At its peak, Denmark controlled several forts along the coast—Christiansborg, Fredensborg, Prinsensten, and others. They traded with local African kingdoms like the Akwamu and the Asante for captives. And the Danes were notorious for their brutal methods. They'd sometimes fire cannons into villages to intimidate and capture people. Lucas: From the Gold Coast, the ships would take the enslaved people across the Middle Passage to the Danish West Indies. The main islands were St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix. St. Croix was the prize—it was bought from France in 1733, and it turned into a massive sugar-producing powerhouse. Luna: So the Danish islands were as brutal as the British ones? Lucas: Absolutely. The sugar plantations on St. Croix were just as deadly. The enslaved population had to be constantly replenished because of the high death rates. Over the course of the Danish slave trade, roughly 100,000 enslaved Africans were brought to the Danish West Indies. That's a huge number for a small kingdom. Lucas: And the conditions were horrific. The work on sugar plantations was backbreaking, and punishment was severe. There were also slave revolts—the most famous one was the 1733 slave revolt on St. John, where enslaved people from the Akwamu kingdom in West Africa led an uprising that took months to suppress. The Danish authorities had to call in French and Swiss troops to crush it. Luna: The Akwamu—those were the same people the Danes traded with on the Gold Coast, right? Lucas: Exactly. The Akwamu were a powerful Akan state that sold captives to the Danes. But some of those captives were actually Akwamu themselves—prisoners from internal conflicts. So the revolt on St. John was led by people who had been warriors in Africa, and they knew how to fight. They took control of the island for several months before the European forces arrived. Lucas: It's a reminder that enslaved people were not passive victims. They resisted whenever they could, and the Danes lived in constant fear of uprisings. But the profits from sugar were so high that the Danish crown and merchants were willing to take the risk. Luna: I've read that Denmark was actually the first European nation to abolish its slave trade. Is that true? Lucas: It is. Denmark-Norway passed a law in 1792 banning the Atlantic slave trade, and it took effect in 1803. That's four years before Britain's abolition in 1807. But the motive wasn't purely humanitarian—it was partly economic. The Danish government was worried about declining profits and wanted to stabilize the plantation workforce by encouraging natural reproduction rather than relying on new imports. Lucas: And even after 1803, the trade didn't fully stop. There was illegal smuggling, and the institution of slavery itself continued in the Danish West Indies until 1848. That's when Governor Peter von Scholten, under pressure from a massive slave uprising, declared emancipation. He was later court-martialed for acting without authorization. Luna: So the Danes weren't exactly progressive heroes. They were just as complicit as everyone else. Lucas: Exactly. And if you've been stepping into history with us through these conversations on the Atlantic slave trade, you've seen how deeply this system wound through every European empire. Denmark is just one more thread in that dark tapestry. But understanding it matters—because it shows how even a small kingdom could build an empire on human suffering. Lucas: And that brings me to something. This show is ad-free, and it stays that way because of listeners who support us directly. If you've found value in these episodes—if learning about the Danish forts or the St. John revolt or the complexities of abolition has been meaningful to you—consider throwing a few dollars our way at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It keeps us independent and helps us keep digging into these stories. Luna: Yeah, I think it's important to support the work that goes into research like this. Every episode takes hours of reading and fact-checking. Lucas: Absolutely. And speaking of research, let's talk about one more Danish influence. The forts on the Gold Coast weren't just holding pens—they were also centers of diplomacy. The Danes often mediated conflicts between local kingdoms, and they sometimes hired African soldiers to guard the forts. It was a complex relationship. Lucas: For example, in the 1740s, the Danes got involved in a war between the Asante and the Fante. They supplied weapons to the Asante in exchange for captives. But when the Asante became too powerful, the Danes shifted their alliance to the Fante. It was a delicate balancing act, and it shows how European traders were not just imposing their will—they were also players in African politics. Luna: So the Danes were just one piece of a much larger puzzle. Lucas: Exactly. And Danish involvement in the slave trade declined in the late 18th century as profits fell and public opinion turned. But by then, tens of thousands of people had been transported. The legacy of that violence is still visible today—in Ghana, where the forts stand as monuments to suffering, and in the Caribbean, where the descendants of enslaved people live on St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John. Lucas: The Danish West Indies were eventually sold to the United States in 1917 for $25 million. They became the US Virgin Islands. So the story of Danish slavery is also part of American history. Luna: That's a connection I hadn't thought of. The Virgin Islands were originally Danish. Lucas: Right. So when you visit St. Thomas or St. Croix today, you're walking on ground that was shaped by Danish colonialism and the slave trade. The architecture, the plantations, the roads—all of it built on enslaved labor. Lucas: I think the key takeaway here is that the Atlantic slave trade was not just a British or Portuguese phenomenon. It was a European-wide enterprise, and even small, seemingly peripheral countries like Denmark played a significant role. Understanding that helps us see how pervasive and entrenched the system really was. Luna: It also shows how important it is to look beyond the big names. There are so many untold stories. Lucas: Absolutely. And that's what keeps me going in this series. There's always another layer, another kingdom, another rebellion, another forgotten fort. The history is vast, but it's also deeply human—full of suffering, resilience, and complexity. Lucas: Next time, we'll look at another often-overlooked aspect: the role of the Indian Ocean slave trade, which we touched on in episode 101. But for now, I hope this look at the Danish slave trade gives you a richer picture of the Atlantic world. Luna: Thanks, Lucas. That was really eye-opening.