Sclav; gemeiner; officier

"Slave; Commoner; Officer" (caption translation). From the Upper Guinea Coast at Sierra Leone, this image shows two Africans (one carrying an ivory tusk, the other a bow and arrow) and an onlooking European (Portuguese?). Otto Friedrich von der Groeben (1657–1728) was a Prussian explorer, officer and German Generalleutnant in Polish service. In 1682, Frederick William, von der Groeben commanded a colonial expedition of Brandenburg, which was supposed to acquire a colony on the coast of Guinea. He stopped at various places en route to the Voltaic region where his outfit built Fort Groß Friedrichsburg, near Princess Town.

Image Title

Sclav; gemeiner; officier

RegID

SI-OB-689

Date

1682

Title

Sclav; gemeiner; officier

Source

Otto F. von der Gröben, Guineische Reise-Beschreibung (Marienwerder: Reiniger, 1694), facing 21.

Language

English

Item sets

Pre-Colonial Africa: Society, Polity, Culture

Spatial Coverage

Africa--Rivers

Reproduced In

Anthony Tibbles (ed.), Transatlantic Slavery: Against Human Dignity (London: HMSO, 1994), p. 29, fig. 4.

Researchers

Jerome Handler; Michael Tuite; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May

Identifier

C007