Knowra Royal African Company Royal African Company The Royal African Company was an English chartered trading company founded in 1672 to trade along the West African coast, including in enslaved people and gold.
Royal charter : A formal grant from a monarch that establishes an organization or gives it specified rights and privileges. Charles II’s charter granted the company a monopoly over English trade in parts of West Africa.
Charles II of England : King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1660 until his death in 1685. He granted the company’s charter and was among its shareholders.
Edward Colston : An English merchant and politician who invested in the Royal African Company and later served as its deputy governor. His career illustrates how company wealth connected Atlantic commerce to English public life.
English slave trade : The participation of English merchants and institutions in the trafficking of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic. The company became a major institutional vehicle for this trade before private merchants gained ground.
Atlantic slave trade : The forced transportation of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic from the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries. The company organized English participation in this wider system of forced migration.
James II of England : King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1685 to 1688, previously known as James, Duke of York. As Duke of York, he led the company before becoming king.
James, Duke of York : The younger brother of Charles II and a leading royal official who later became James II. He served as the company’s governor and gave it a powerful royal sponsor.
Royal African Company slave trade : The company’s organized purchase, transport, and sale of enslaved Africans between West Africa and the Americas. This trade was central to the company’s commercial activity and human cost.
Cape Coast Castle : A fortified trading post on Ghana’s coast that became a major British colonial and slave-trading center. The company used this fort as its principal base on the Gold Coast.
Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa : An English chartered company founded in 1660 to trade in Africa under royal patronage. It was the Royal African Company’s predecessor, reorganized after financial difficulties.
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