Fort James
*Fort James was built on this date in 1659. It was a slave-holding fort located in Accra, Ghana.
In 1673, the Royal African Company of England (RAC) built it as a trading post for gold and slaves, joining the Dutch Fort Crêvecœur (1649) and the Danish Fort Christiansborg (1652) along the Coast of the then-Gold Coast.
Fort James was named after the then Duke of York, later King James II, who was Governor of the RAC at the time it was built and after whom the adjacent town of Jamestown in Accra was also named. The fort stood next to Jamestown Lighthouse and served as a prison from the colonial era up to 2008. Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, was imprisoned from 1950 to 1951, along with the ordinary criminal population. It is a historic castle and serves as a tourist site.
