Dutch Letters from Ghana.

CAPITEIN, Jacobus, 1717-1747; VAN Focquenbroch, Willem; GHANAIAN history, to 1957; DUTCH colonies; SLAVERY & religion; BLACK clergy; DUTCH poets; HISTORY

ELMINA (Ghana); GHANAReport Available; NETHERLANDSReport Available

The article discusses Willem van Focquenbroch, a poet and tax collector who died in 1670, and Jacobus Capitein, a freed slave and preacher who died in 1747, both of whom lived at the Dutch colony at Elmina, in modern Ghana. It presents excerpts from letters van Focquenbroch wrote and considers modern interest in the poet. The author comments on the Dutch conquest of West Africa and the role of the Netherlands in the Atlantic slave trade. He also explores a dissertation that Capitein wrote at Leiden University in which he argued that slavery was not contrary to the teachings of the Bible.