Around 1717 Jacobus Capitein was born in the Gold Coast. He was forcibly taken to the Netherlands in 1725, where he was given to Jacobus van Goch. Capitein excelled at school and announced during his baptism in 1735 that he wanted to return to the Gold Coast as a missionary. To that effect he studied at Leiden University between 1737 and 1742, graduating on a dissertation defending slavery. He was subsequently installed by the Dutch East India Company as a Christian minister at Elmina, where he married Antonia Ginderdros. Ashanti king Opoku Ware I demanded that Capitein teach his children, which he did. Capitein died in Elmina in 1747.