Jan Pranger ( – 13 April 1773) was a Dutch merchant, slave trader and colonial administrator who served as the Director-General of the Dutch Gold Coast from 1730 to 1734. A portrait of him along with an enslaved servant by Dutch artist Frans van der Mijn in on display at the

Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the S ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

Early life

Jan Pranger was born in

to Jan Pranger Sr., a Dutch

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

merchant, and his wife Johanna van Eden. The family belonged to the

middle class The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. C ...

of the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

. In 1720, Pranger was employed by the

Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company () was a Dutch chartered company that was founded in 1621 and went defunct in 1792. Among its founders were Reynier Pauw, Willem Usselincx (1567–1647), and Jessé de Forest (1576–1624). On 3 June 1621, it was gra ...

as an assistant to the Dutch merchants operating out of

Elmina Elmina ( Fante: ''Edina'') is a town and the capital of the Komenda/Edina/Eguafo/Abirem District on the south coast of Ghana in the Central Region. It is situated on a bay on the Atlantic Ocean, west of Cape Coast.Straight line distances ...

, one of the lowest administrative ranks available on the

Dutch Gold Coast The Dutch Gold Coast or Dutch Guinea, officially Dutch possessions on the Coast of Guinea (Dutch language, Dutch: ''Nederlandse Bezittingen ter Kuste van Guinea'') was a portion of contemporary Ghana that was gradually colonized by the Dutch (et ...

. He soon rose in prominence in the Gold Coast, and in 1724 was appointed the head of

Fort Crèvecœur A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Lati ...

Accra Accra (; or ''Gaga''; ; Ewe: Gɛ; ) is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , had a population of ...

, an office which came with the rank of head merchant (

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

: ''oppercommies'') and an accession to the Colonial Council in Elmina.

Director-General of the Dutch Gold Coast

Portret van Machteld Muilman Rijksmuseum SK-A-2249

When the Director-General of the Dutch Gold Coast, Pieter Valkenier, resigned in 1725, he advised the Colonial Council to install either Robert Norre or Pranger as his successor. Probably due to his young age, Pranger was passed over in favour of Robert Norre, but when he resigned in 1729, Pranger was eventually selected for the post of Director-General. Pranger was officially installed as Director-General on 6 March 1730. As Director-General, Pranger soon came into conflict with head merchant Hendrik Hertogh, who operated out of the

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. Th ...

in Jaquim on the

Dutch Slave Coast The Dutch Slave Coast (Dutch language, Dutch: ''Slavenkust'') refers to the trading posts of the Dutch West India Company on the Slave Coast of West Africa, Slave Coast, which lie in contemporary Ghana, Benin, Togo, and Nigeria. The primary purp ...

, which was in theory subordinate to the Director-General. In 1732, the factory in Jaquim was looted and burnt by forces from the

Kingdom of Dahomey The Kingdom of Dahomey () was a West African kingdom located within present-day Benin that existed from approximately 1600 until 1904. It developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon people in the early 17th century and became a regional ...

; in response, Pranger dispatched a diplomatic expedition under the leadership of his subordinate Jacobus Elet to

Abomey Agbome or Abomey is the capital of the Zou Department of Benin. The commune of Abomey covers an area of 142 square kilometres and, as of 2012, had a population of 90,195 people. Abomey houses the Royal Palaces of Abomey, a collection of small tr ...

in order to negotiate with King

Agaja Agaja (also spelled Agadja and also known as Trudo Agaja or Trudo Audati) was a King of Dahomey, king of the Kingdom of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, who ruled from 1718 until 1740. He came to the throne after his brother Akaba of Dahomey, King A ...

. Although initially the expedition seemed successful, in the end the relationship with Dahomey proved to be damaged beyond repair. Out of frustration with the situation in Dahomey, Pranger petitioned the Colonial Council to accept his letter of resignation on 3 May 1733, and on 13 March 1734, his successor Antonius van Overbeke was installed by the council. In June 1735, Pranger left the Gold Coast on a

slave ship Slave ships were large cargo ships specially built or converted from the 17th to the 19th century for transporting Slavery, slaves. Such ships were also known as "Guineamen" because the trade involved human trafficking to and from the Guinea ( ...

headed for Surinam. As he fell ill during the voyage, he only departed Surinam in the spring of 1736. Pranger eventually arrived in the Dutch Republic on 15 June 1736.

Later life and death

Almost immediately after his return to the Dutch Republic, on 5 July 1736, he married Elisabeth Oloff, who died a little more than three years later, on 5 December 1739. Pranger remarried to Machteld Muilman on 14 September 1745. Pranger had become wealthy man due to his service in the Gold Coast. During his retirement in the Dutch Republic, Pranger purchased a

canal house A canal house () is a (usually old) house overlooking a canal. These houses are often slim, high and deep. Canal houses usually had a basement and a loft and attic where trade goods could be stored. A special Beam (structure), beam or pulley in ...

on the

Singel The Singel () is one of the canals of Amsterdam. The Singel encircled Amsterdam in the Middle Ages, serving as a moat around the city until 1585, when Amsterdam expanded beyond the Singel. The canal runs from the IJ bay, near the Central St ...

canal in Amsterdam, and a country house outside of the city. He employed four

domestic workers A domestic worker is a person who works within a residence and performs a variety of household services for an individual, from providing cleaning and household maintenance, or cooking, laundry and ironing, or care for children and elderly de ...

s and owned three horses. Pranger died in Amsterdam on 13 April 1773.

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pranger, Jan 1700s births 1773 deaths 18th-century Dutch merchants Businesspeople from Amsterdam Colonial governors of the Dutch Gold Coast Dutch slave owners Dutch slave traders Dutch West India Company people from Amsterdam