Mulatto Influence on the Gold Coast in Early Nineteenth Century: Jan Nieser of Elmina

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Periodical article

Title:	Mulatto Influence on the Gold Coast in Early Nineteenth Century: Jan Nieser of Elmina
Author:	Lever, J.T.
Year:	1970
Periodical:	African Historical Studies
Volume:	3
Issue:	2
Pages:	253-261
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Ghana
Subjects:	racially mixed persons history 1700-1799 History and Exploration Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Ethnic and Race Relations
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/216216
Abstract:	The mulattoes of the Gold Coast never constituted a distinctive social class. Nevertheless men and women of Euro-African descent through their contact with both the foreign traders and the local African communities were able to take advantage of the perennial need for mediators and brokers between the two groups. Some mulattoes were among those most favourably placed to assimilate European modes and techniques and to adapt these in the light of conditions on the Coast. They did so in increasing numbers from about the second half of the 18th century. Perhaps the most influential Gold Coast mulatto during the period of the Ashanti invasions of 1807 and after was Jan Nieser, a man with many ties to the Dutch, the coastal African communities, and Ashanti. Of his life some aspects are examined. Notes.