King Aggri's House at Cape Coast Castle
This engraving illustrates Fante thatched-roof housing outside the notorious slave fort at Cape Coast in the Voltaic region. Allen wrote that with "the exception of a few English houses, the town consists of straggling lines of mud-huts, to which little clusters of palm trees. . . add a look of coolness, even under the burning sun of that coast" (p. 135). William Allen (1792–1864) was an English naval officer and explorer. Thomas Richard Heywood Thomson (1813–1876) was an English explorer and naturalist. They took part in the Niger expedition to map the course of the river. In Cape Coast, Allen and Thomson interacted with the Fante king, Joseph Aggrey Essien (1809–1869).
Image Title
King Aggri's House at Cape Coast Castle
RegID
SI-OB-850
Date
1848
Title
King Aggri's House at Cape Coast Castle
Source
William Allen and Thomas Richard Heywood Thomson, A Narrative of the Expedition sent by Her Majesty's Government to the River Niger, in 1841, vol. 1 (London: R. Bentley, 1848), p. 135.
Language
English
Item sets
Pre-Colonial Africa: Society, Polity, Culture
Spatial Coverage
Africa--Voltaic--Cape Coast
Researchers
Jerome Handler; Michael Tuite; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May
Last Updated
10-Feb-17; 27-Aug-19
Identifier
Allen01