Cape Coast Castle (Swedish: Carolusborg) is one of about forty "slave castles", or large commercial forts, built on the Gold Coast of West Africa (now Ghana) by European traders. Cape Coast Castle is located in the Central Region of Ghana. It was originally a Portuguese "feitoria" or trading post, established in 1555, which was named Cabo Corso.

In 1653, a timber fort was constructed by the Swedish Africa Company. It originally was a center for timber and gold trade and then was later used in the Atlantic slave trade. Other Ghanaian slave castles include Elmina Castle and Fort Christiansborg. They were used to harbor enslaved Africans before they were loaded onto ships and sold in the Americas, especially the Caribbean. This "gate of no return" was the last stop before crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Cape Coast Castle, along with other forts and castles in Ghana, are included on the UNESCO World Heritage List because of their testimony to the Atlantic gold and slave trades.

The large quantity of gold dust found in Ghana was what primarily attracted European traders, and many natives of Cape Coast used this to their advantage. In exchange for gold, mahogany, and other locally produced goods and enslaved captives, local Africans received clothing, blankets, spices, sugar, silk and many other items. Cape Coast Castle was a market where this barter trade took place. In addition, the "Account of the Limits and Trade of the Royal African Company" stated the agent-general at Cape Coast Castle would supply trading forts with goods intended to be traded for gold, ivory, and slaves.

Enslaved Africans were a valuable commodity in the Americas and elsewhere, and enslaved people were the main trade in Cape Coast. Due to this, many changes were made to the fort. One of the alterations was the addition of large, underground dungeons that could hold as many as a thousand enslaved people awaiting export. Many European nations flocked to the area in order to get a foothold in the slave trade. The business was very competitive, which led to conflict and for this reason, the forts changed hands many times during the course of its commercial history.

In 1672, the "Royal African Company of England was given a legal monopoly on English trade ‘for a thousand years’ along the entire western coast of Africa from the edge of the desert in the north to the Cape of Good Hope in the south," and the company would expand Cape Coast Castle in the decades to come. The Royal African Company found itself unable to enforce its monopoly due to a loss of ships from pirates and privateers and unafflicted slave captains who could undercut their prices because they "paid nothing towards the costs of the Castle and the forts”.

Slave were valuable enough that the French were forbidden from trading "in Africa, at cape Appollonia, or between it and the river Volta, where, and at Popo and Whidah, to the eastward of that river," where slaves were obtained for sugar plantations. Such that, the "late company’s governor" at Cape Coast Castle upon seeing a French ship, sent a messenger with the following message, "You are ordered on board the French vessel, to tell the master, the governor and council do not make trade with the subjects of France, nor do they suffer the natives to trade with them. But as there subsists a good friendship and alliance between the king of Great Britain and the French king, if the master should be distressed for water, or such like necessaries, he might have it upon application, by admitting an officer on board, to prevent his having intercourse with the natives, or others, till he should have received such supplies; but that he should not be allowed to trade to the westward of the river Volta, which if he attempted, proper measures would be taken to prevent and obstruct his commerce. Therefore, should he neglect those orders, and receive any damage thereby, it would be his own fault; as the governor and council held the trade of the Gold Coast, the indubitable right and property of the Royal African company of England."

In 1750, the Royal African Company was abolished, and Parliament passed an act that removed the monopoly of trading in Africa that had previously belonged to the Royal African Company. In its place, "Parliament provided a public subsidy to the slaving industry as a whole in the form of a block grant to a private sector body, the Company of Merchants Trading to Africa, who took over the Castle, the forts, and the previous employees." The Company's Committee consisted of important members of the slaving industry in London, Bristol, and Liverpool.

In 1777, the African Company of Merchants at Cape Coast Castle experienced stagnation by attempting to lower the price of slaves. Their plan was disrupted by a French ship that arrived at Annamaboa, and Captain Cotton intended on driving away the French ship to proceed with the Company's intentions to lower the price of slaves.