Biography

Danish physician and colonial administrator who collected plants in Africa and the Lesser Antilles. His most renowned work, however, was his campaign against the slave trade and establishment of plantations in West Africa. Paul Erdmann Isert was born in Germany, at Angermünde, Brandenburg, but was educated in Denmark. Appointed chief surgeon at Christiansborg, capital of the Danish Gold Coast (present day Accra, Ghana), he travelled to Africa in 1783. Isert escaped the fate of many Europeans residing in the country and survived several years in the inhospitable land before joining a slave ship bound for the West Indies as ship's surgeon. This, too, was a dangerous undertaking; on the second day at sea, the 452 Africans on board rebelled, killing many of their oppressors. Nevertheless, the ship reached its destination and Isert began to explore the islands of St. Croix, St. Thomas, St. John, Guadeloupe and Martinique, meanwhile expressing his disapproval of the trade that had brought him there. He believed that plantations could be established just as profitably on African soil, employing paid labour, and mounted a campaign to end the Danish-Norwegian slave trade with the help of liberal Danish politician Ernst von Schimmelmann.

Most of Isert's plant collecting in the Antilles took place in 1787, after which he devoted himself to the anti-slavery cause. In 1788 he published an ethnological account of West African life and described the experiences that inspired him to take up the flag (Reise nach Guinea und den Caribäischen Inseln in Columbien), then returned to Africa (with a wife) and established a plantation in the fertile Akwapim Hills. He bought the land on behalf of the Danish crown from a local tribal chief (with whom he was friendly on account of once having tended his sister). Sugar and coffee were planted, but despite King Christian VII's support for the scheme, some government officials at Christiansborg were deeply opposed to the ending of the slave trade, which was a profitable activity for them. In 1789, days after he wrote to the Danish king reporting on the success of the plantation, Isert and his family were murdered. The Danish crown continued to support the original plantation and further cultivation in the country, but the scheme was ultimately unsuccessful.

Sources:
S. Axelrod Winsnes (trans.), 1992, Letters of West Africa and the Slave Trade
Wikipedia, Paul Erdmann Isert:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erdmann_Isert.

Biography

Danish physician and colonial administrator who collected plants in Africa and the Lesser Antilles. His most renowned work, however, was his campaign against the slave trade and establishment of plantations in West Africa. Paul Erdmann Isert was born in Germany, at Angermünde, Brandenburg, but was educated in Denmark. Appointed chief surgeon at Christiansborg, capital of the Danish Gold Coast (present day Accra, Ghana), he travelled to Africa in 1783. Isert escaped the fate of many Europeans residing in the country and survived several years in the inhospitable land before joining a slave ship bound for the West Indies as ship's surgeon. This, too, was a dangerous undertaking; on the second day at sea, the 452 Africans on board rebelled, killing many of their oppressors. Nevertheless, the ship reached its destination and Isert began to explore the islands of St. Croix, St. Thomas, St. John, Guadeloupe and Martinique, meanwhile expressing his disapproval of the trade that had brought him there. He believed that plantations could be established just as profitably on African soil, employing paid labour, and mounted a campaign to end the Danish-Norwegian slave trade with the help of liberal Danish politician Ernst von Schimmelmann.

Most of Isert's plant collecting in the Antilles took place in 1787, after which he devoted himself to the anti-slavery cause. In 1788 he published an ethnological account of West African life and described the experiences that inspired him to take up the flag (Reise nach Guinea und den Caribäischen Inseln in Columbien), then returned to Africa (with a wife) and established a plantation in the fertile Akwapim Hills. He bought the land on behalf of the Danish crown from a local tribal chief (with whom he was friendly on account of once having tended his sister). Sugar and coffee were planted, but despite King Christian VII's support for the scheme, some government officials at Christiansborg were deeply opposed to the ending of the slave trade, which was a profitable activity for them. In 1789, days after he wrote to the Danish king reporting on the success of the plantation, Isert and his family were murdered. The Danish crown continued to support the original plantation and further cultivation in the country, but the scheme was ultimately unsuccessful.

Sources:
S. Axelrod Winsnes (trans.), 1992, Letters of West Africa and the Slave Trade
Wikipedia, Paul Erdmann Isert:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erdmann_Isert.