In 1632, the Company of Guynney and Binney built a trading base at Kormantin in coastal Ghana – England’s first outpost in Africa. Fortified and expanded, it served as English West Africa’s commercial headquarters until its capture by the Dutch in 1665, when it was renamed Fort Amsterdam. Kormantin is thus among the significant ‘firsts’ of Atlantic World, including sites such as Elmina (Ghana), La Isabela (Dominican Republic), Jamestown (Virginia), and others that played preeminent roles in cross-cultural encounters of the early modern world. England’s “Cormantine Castle” was among the first European West African emporia to send enslaved Africans to expanding European colonies in the Americas. The fort was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1972, becoming one of the first internationally recognized memorials to the Atlantic slave trade.