The history of the first Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) missionaries at Cape Coast (Gold Coast, now Ghana), that of Thomas Thompson from 1752 to 1755 and Philip Quaque from 1766 to 1816, involved two men struggling to create change in a coastal environment that was responding to a variety of internal and external factors. The changing relationship between the Fetu, Fante and English at Cape Coast, coupled with the continued expansion of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the continually evolving coastal bartering system, created obstacles that neither Thompson nor Quaque was able to overcome. These coastal changes created coastal resistance to the missions that was intensified by both Thompson and Quaque’s dual role with the SPG and the Company of Merchants Trading to Africa (CMTA). Upon their arrival, both men were expected to first fulfil their SPG responsibilities, which included proselytizing and educating the Cape Coast peoples, while serving English interests as the CMTA’s coastal chaplain. In both of these roles, the forces of the slave trade proved superior and greatly limited the ability of either to successfully convert even a small segment of the local population. Still, the missions of Thompson and Quaque mark a turning point in the relationship between England and the Gold Coast. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [ASC Leiden abstract]
