In Remembrance

Cape Coast Castle was a sobering experience.  It was originally built as a trading post for gold and other goods, but as the slave trade become more profitable, it became a holding ground for countless men, women, and children in slavery.  Three different times our tour guide asked us to tell others what we had seen in order to make sure it never happens again.  That is what we are doing: asking you to remember a dark time in human history.  Human slavery has existed in almost all eras and on every continent and it sadly still exists today.  However, nothing quite compares to the large-scale depravity and suffering of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.  There are some difficult truths in this post.

The entrance to the men's dungeon is on the bottom left. A church is above it.
The sounds of music and teaching mixed with the sounds of crying and groaning.

Entering the men's dungeon.

The original floor has been excavated, but this raised square was left behind as a memorial.
It is composed of human blood, bones, and other organic materials.

This is a drain in the cells, which were designed in such a way to allow rainwater to enter and wash
away the human waste that gathered all over the floor.
Many slaves died from disease.

This is one of the four rooms in the men's dungeon. The dungeon could hold up to a thousand people.
The guide turned off the lights and we stood in the darkness in silence for a few moments.

Captives were taken out of the dungeon one at a time.

In and near the women's dungeon, women were assaulted by guards and traders.
Those found to be pregnant were taken to a separate area until the baby was born, then returned to the dungeon.  The babies usually died.
If women were found pregnant on slave ships, they were thrown overboard and fed to sharks which followed the "floating coffins".
Sometimes the sharks were caught and fed to the slaves.

The "door of no return" ushered captives who survived months in the castle to the canoes that took them to horrible conditions on slave shapes, and then to lives of slavery in the West.

The area is now a dock for fishermen.

Captives who tried to escape were kept in total darkness in this small cell where they were usually starved to death as an example to others.

Habakuk chapter 2 has some powerful things to say about social injustice and our Only Source of true hope.  Verse 11 is especially poignant: "The stones of the wall will cry out, and the beams of the woodwork will echo it."