Portrait of Jan Valckenburgh and an Enslaved Servant

Jan Valckenburgh, married to Dina Lems (opposite), twice served as director-general of Elmina (in present-day Ghana), seen here in the distance. The young man standing behind him is one of the numerous individuals brought to Elmina by African traders in order to be sold to the Dutch. At Fort Elmina, this human trafficking was organized and coordinated by the Dutch West India Company (WIC). In total, the Dutch transported 550,000 Africans to the Americas and the Caribbean.