Ludewig Ferdinand Rømer (9 January 1714 - 17 April 1776) was a Danish merchant and sugar-baker. He is mainly remembered for his two books on the

Danish Gold Coast The Danish Gold Coast ( or ''Dansk Guinea'') comprised the colonies that Denmark–Norway controlled in Africa as a part of the Gold Coast (region), Gold Coast (roughly present-day southeast Ghana), which is on the Gulf of Guinea. It was coloni ...

. ''A reliable account of the coast of Guinea'' was published in English in 2014. His home and sugar refinery was at Nyhavn 11 in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

Career

Römer was born in

Elsfleth Elsfleth () is a town in the district of Wesermarsch, Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated at the confluence of the Hunte with the Weser, on the left bank of the Weser. It has a school of navigation (university of applied sciences), a harbour and ...

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

. Nothing is known about his background. He came to the

in an early age where he was a senior assistant (''overassistent'') when seeking refuge at a British fortress in 1744 when governor Jørgen Billsen wanted to arrest him in connection with a controversy among members of the Danish colonial administration. He then returned to Denmark, where he wrote a number of complaints to the

Danish West India Company The Danish West India Company () or Danish West IndiaGuinea Company (') was a Dano-Norwegian chartered company that operated out of the colonies in the Danish West Indies. It is estimated that 120,000 enslaved Africans were transported on the ...

. He was licensed as a merchant of the Danish Gold Coast and returned to Africa on board the ship ''Wilhelmine Galej'' in 1746. He was promoted to ''overkøbmand'' before returning to Denmark. Back in Denmark he purchased a property at Nyhavn 11 in Copenhagen. In 1754, he was granted a license to open a sugar refinery at the site. He remained connected to the Danish colonies through his involvement with Det Københavnske Brødresocietet.

Written works

Rømer is now mainly remembered for his books. In 1756, he published ''Tilforladelig Efterretning om Negotien paa Kysten Guinea'' (German translation in 1758). It was followed by ''Tilforladelig Efterretning om Kysten Guinea'' in 1760 /German translation in 1769). The latter contains a foreword by the theologian

Erik Pontoppidan Erik Ludvigsen Pontoppidan (24 August 1698 – 20 December 1764) was a Danish author, a Lutheran bishop of the Church of Norway, a historian, and an antiquarian. His Catechism of the Church of Denmark heavily influenced Danish and Norwegian rel ...

in which he claims that black slavery is not incompatible with Christian commandments. The Danish historian Georg Nørregård has characterized Rømer's books as "overwhelmingly unreliable". Römer did, however, have good local sources and the books contain valuable information about the history of the Asante (Ashanti) people and state. The historian

Ivor Wilks Professor Emeritus Ivor G. Wilks (19 July 1928 – 7 October 2014)"Professor Ivor Wilks is dead"
, Star ...

has described his works as "one of the best sources of insight into the nature of coastal Ghanaian society in the eighteenth Century". His book was published in English as ''A reliable account of the coast of Guinea '' in 2013.

Personal life

On 2 June 1751, Rømer married Anna Cathrine Wedderkamp (c. 1732 - 5 March 1770) in St. Nicolas' Church in Copenhagen. The couple had 14 children. Rømer died on 17 April 1776. He is buried at Frederick's German Church.

References

Rcternal links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Romer, Ludvig Ferdinand 1714 births 1776 deaths 18th-century Danish businesspeople Danish merchants Danish sugar industry businesspeople 18th-century Danish non-fiction writers Emigrants from the Holy Roman Empire to Denmark–Norway Merchants from Denmark–Norway