Paul E. Isert, a Dane, arrived in Ghana (then the Gold Coast) in 1783,
taking advantage of an opening in the slave trade between Guinea and the
West Indies. He was appointed as chief surgeon to the Danish
establishments on the Guinea Coast. In 1786 he sailed to the West Indies
with a cargo of slaves, who revolted. His experiences in Ghana and the
West Indies resolved him to end the trans-Atlantic slave abuse. This
book is written in the form of letters to his father. An elusive
character, it is clear that he nonetheless had an unreservedly positive
attitude towards Africa and its indigenous peoples, and an equally
negative attitude towards the Europeans on the Guinea coast. An admirer
of Rousseau's philosophy, he was concerned about the corrupting
influence of the European "civilisation" on the "Blacks". His writing
attempts at objectivity, seeking to find the common humanity. He claims
that the "Black" was, at least equal to tat of the "European", which was
not shared by his Danish predecessors. This is the first English
language edition of his original Danish letters, previously published in
German, Dutch, French, and Swedish.