page_title: William Ansah Sessarakoo
section_title: Later life in Annamaboe
hierarchical_section_title: William Ansah Sessarakoo / Later life in Annamaboe
caption_attribution_description: English: Cape Coast Castle is a fortification in Ghana. The Castle was built for the trade in timber and gold, later it was used in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, today it accommodates a museum operated by the Ghana Heritage Trust.
context_page_description: William Ansah Sessarakoo, a prominent 18th-century Fante man, is best known for his wrongful enslavement in the West Indies and diplomatic mission to England. He was both prominent among the Fante people and influential among Europeans concerned with the transatlantic slave trade.
  Ansah was born c. 1736 in Annamaboe, the then largest slave-trading port on the Gold Coast. His father, John Corrente, was the head of Annamaboe's government, and chief caboceer, and an important ally for anyone living or trading in the city. Accordingly, Ansah and his family were of interest to the many European polities competing for access to Annamaboe's abundant trade.
  After sending Ansah's brother to France, John Corrente sent Ansah to England to gain an education, curry favour with the English, and serve as his eyes and ears in Europe. The ship captain entrusted with Ansah's transport, however, dishonorably sold him into slavery in Barbados before reaching England.
  Years later, a free Fante trader discovered Ansah in Barbados and quickly alerted John Corrente of his son's fate.
context_section_description: When Ansah left England, he also left the fairytale life of a European prince. In Annamaboe, the elite certainly had many privileges, but the extravagance found in Europe was simply not present. After only a year back in Africa, he began work as a writer at Cape Coast Castle, the seat of British power on the Gold Coast some ten miles Southwest of Annamaboe.
  Employing both his position at Cape Coast Castle and powerful connections in London, Ansah worked with his father, John Corrente, to play the British and French off each other in Annamaboe. By pledging allegiance to neither of the two powers, Annamaboe forced both Britain and France to offer competitive trade offers and regular tributes to remain in good standing. Additionally, Ansah is known to have personally accepted lavish gifts of whiskey from the British that were meant for the greater Fante people.
  In 1761, however, Ansah became infuriated that William Mutter, governor of Cape Coast Castle, had paid him in watered down whiskey. When he confronted Mutter, the argument developed into a physical altercation, and Ansah was banned from Cape Coast Castle. Mutter went on to claim Ansah was "not a person of Consequence in [Annamaboe]." Indeed, while Ansah was John Corrente's son, he was not Corrente's heir.
  No longer in good favour with the British, Ansah spent the rest of his life in Annamaboe. Records exist of him acting as a slave trader during this time, but his activities are relatively unknown. He lived his final days and passed away in relative anonymity, at least from the European perspective that is. As such, the date of his death is unknown. It can none the less be estimated based upon the date of his dismissal from Cape Coast Castle and later trade records that he died c.1770.
caption: Cape Coast Slave Castle
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