Despite its small size compared to other castles and forts on the coastlines of Ghana, Ussher Fort remains one of the oldest standing forts in Ghana. Situated in Jamestown, the fort, built by the British in 1868, was built on the ruins of a much older fort; fort Crevecoeur, built in 1649 for barter trade purposes and later for harbouring slaves by the Dutch. Being close to the sealine, the chunk of fort Crevecoeur later washed into the sea in 1850 when there was an earthquake. Ussher fort was used to harbour slaves and later transport them to Northern and Southern America.
When the bond of 1844 brought an end to slave trade, Ussher fort served as a prison system for the British even as the process of colonization continued. The British built tailoring shop and carpentry shop inside the prison to enable prisoners learn a trade while in prison. The fort has high walls, which served as great monitoring spots for British soldiers. Just like other castles, there is still evidence of canyons and canyon balls, which were made from steel for times of war and to protect the fort from other Europeans raids.
Great men in the history of Ghana, where once resident prisoners in Ussher Fort. These include; Kwame Nkrumah, John Agyekum Kuffour, Dr. Nyaho Nyaho Tamakloe, Journalist Kwaku Baako, J.J Rawlings, members of the big six among various others.
In 1992, the final batch of prisoners were transported to Nsawam by the then president; Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and the fort became a historical site. In the year 2004, the old fort was used as a place to host South Sudan refugees, by the then president John Agyekum Kuffour. In 2005, about 1000 Liberian refugees camped there as well.
Ussher Fort contains many prison cells for both prisoners on remand and condemned ones. Each prison door has a little hole used by prisoners to communicate to their wardens. There is an old kitchen, a dining hall, for feeding prisoners twice daily, public bathing space; where prison officers watched the nakedness of prisoners from the high rooftops, a laundry room for washing of prison officers’ clothes, and a public toilet built in such a way that inmates used the space facing each other. The ruins of a church built with red bricks by the British and used by prison officers, still situated inside Ussher Fort, provides evidence of British presence in the Gold Coast. As prime minister, and while Ussher Fort still served as a prison, Nkrumah built a mosque right beside the church to signify unity so both Christian and muslim prisoners could worship freely.
There were also execution rooms that held prisoners charged with political contempt bound. These prisoners were bound in shackles and left in darkness. To force some prisoners to speak or tell the truth, they were resorted to torture. Till today, there remains various inscriptions on the walls of the prison cells of condemned prisoners, depict ing depression, anger, longing and sad ness. These prisoners faced nothing but death, with no bathing or special treats. Condemn prisons could have up to 10 people in one tiny cell and a single vent, leading many to suffocate to death. Condemned prisoners were matched to the ‘house of the lord’ where they were chained up without food to be wakened before final execution either by hanging or by electrocution. Four condemn prisoners are killed at a time.
In 1979, UNESCO registered Uss her Fort as a heritage site after it was abandoned for many years. An excava tion in 2010, discovered human bones beneath Ussher Fort and Fort Creve coeur fort showing slave evidence. Today, Ussher Fort remains an import ant heritage site to both residents of Jamestown, and the country at large.
