Friday, August 04, 2006
Holiday - Continued........
The Elmina Slave Castle...........This is the entrance to main section of the slave castle - there were three floors - slaves on first, soldiers on second and the Governor occupied the top - third floor. The first two levels continued all around the fort, but the top floor was only at this one end where he lived and carried out his assignments and entertainments.
Here Wayne and Barb find themselves standing in front of the slave dungeon. This was the area that disobedient slaves were punished - the sentence was always death. There was room for about 30 slaves in an area about 12 foot square. Once put in, they were never removed and the cell was never cleaned until the last one had died - so many would be alive while many were already dead and decomposing.
This tiny door was called the Port of no return - if you look through the opening you can see the ocean and a couple of boats in the background - in trading days the ocean came right up to this castle door and the slaves were taken through here and loaded on the boats. The door is probably only about 20 - 24 inches wide, so they didn't sell or ship very many large (fat) slaves. # posted by Ghana Gazette @ 7:43 AM 
