Pieter Woortman (born 23 March 1700 – 14 April 1780) was a Prussian born Dutch slave trader and colonial administrator of 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 ...

. He was one of the longest-serving Director-General of the Dutch Gold Coast, in office between 1767 and 1769 (ad interim) and from 1769 until his death in 1780.

Biography

Pieter Woortman was born in Soest, Brandenburg-Prussia, to Johann Georg Wortmann and Margaretha Elisabeth Plange. In 1721, Woortman applied for a job at the

, and was stationed as soldier 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 ...

. Woortman made a swift career, becoming fort commandant and acting military commander, and retired to the Netherlands in 1730. Woortman settled in

Groningen Groningen ( , ; ; or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen (province), Groningen province in the Netherlands. Dubbed the "capital of the north", Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of ...

, set up a grocery store, married Elisabeth Carrier, and founded a family. Probably because of personal financial problems, he returned to the Gold Coast in 1741. Because of his previous experience, he was installed as commandant

Fort Lijdzaamheid Fort Patience (Dutch: ''Fort Lijdzaamheid'', or, in 17th-century spelling, ''Fort Leydsaemheyt'') is a Dutch-built fort located in the township of Apam, in the Central Region of Ghana. Originally built in 1697, it served as a defensive fortificat ...

soon after his arrival. Here he

cassare ''Cassare'' or ''calissare'' (from Portuguese ''casar'', "to marry") was the term applied to the marriage alliances, largely in West Africa, set up between European and African slave traders; the "husband" was European and the wife/concubine Afri ...

d a local African woman named Afodua or Aphodewa, with whom he would have six children. At Fort Lijdzaamheid, Woortman and Afodua led a profitable slave trade enterprise, which probably led him to delay his application for a higher office. When he eventually did so in 1763, he would rise to the highest office of Director-General in four years time. Jan and Hendrik Woortman, sons from his Dutch marriage with Elisabeth Carrier joined him in his personal enterprise, later joined by sons from his relationship with Afodua. The combination of Woortman's contacts with the Company, and Afodua's contacts with the local people, proved very worthwhile. Woortman died on 14 April 1780, at the age of 80.

Legacy

Both Jan and Hendrik Woortman, sons of Pieter Woortman and Elisabeth Carrier, married women according to local rites during their service on the Gold Coast. Their offspring in male line in

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

still carries the name Woortman. The children of Pieter Woortman and Afodua carried the name Plange, after Pieter Woortman's mother. The Plange family would become one of the most prominent Euro-African families on the Gold Coast in the nineteenth century. Descendants include the English rugby league player

David Plange David Apatu Plange (born 24 July 1965) is an English former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s, and coached in the 1990s and 2000s. He played at representative level for Great Britain, and at club level for ...

, the Ghanaian boxer

Manyo Plange Jesse Manyo Plange (born January 18, 1988) is a Ghanaian boxer who won silver at the 2007 All-Africa Games and qualified for the 2008 Summer Olympics. At the 2006 Commonwealth Games, he lost in the second round to a Welshman. At the 2007 All-Afr ...

, the Burkinabé footballer Nii Plange, and the Ghanaian fashion designer Mimi Plange.

Citations

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Woortman, Pieter 1700 births 1780 deaths Colonial governors of the Dutch Gold Coast People from Soest, Germany Dutch slave traders 18th-century Dutch businesspeople