It is an 18.2-hectare (45-acre) island located two kilometres (1.1 nmi; 1.2 mi) at sea from the main harbour of Dakar (14°40′N 17°24′W / 14.667°N 17.400°W / 14.667; -17.400), famous as a destination for people interested in the Atlantic slave trade.

According to Valentim Fernandes, the Portuguese established a chapel with dry stone walls and a roof made out of straw on the island.

[6] According to Olfert Dapper, the island was gifted to the Dutch West India Company by the local chief Biram in 1617.

[11] With this loss, their access to the lucrative coastal trade was cut off, and the importance and wealth of Santiago, Cape Verde, withered.

[12] The British also attempted to control this trade, capturing the island with a fleet under Robert Holmes in 1663, but it was soon recaptured by Michiel de Ruyter.

In 1677 a French fleet led by Jean d'Estrées defeated the Dutch and captured Goree and their coastal trading posts.

In March 1815, during his political comeback known as the Hundred Days, Napoleon definitively abolished the slave trade to build relations with Great Britain.

As discussed by historian Ana Lucia Araujo, the building started gaining reputation as a slave depot mainly because of the work of its curator Boubacar Joseph Ndiaye, who was able to move the audiences who visited the house with his performance.

The main buildings are the Slave house, 1786; William Ponty School, 1770; Musée de la mer (Maritime museum), 1835; Fort d'Estrées, originally called the northern battery, which now contains the Historical Museum of Senegal, built between 1852 and 1865; palais du Government (Government Palace), 1864, occupied by the first governor-general of Senegal from 1902 to 1907.

The signares (free African or Afro-European women) were recorded preferring to eat on the floor with a spoon and communal bowl, as their domestic slaves, but European men kept tradition and used a table.

Dr Shawn Murray (University of Wisconsin–Madison) also contributed to archaeological research at Gorée through a study of local and introduced trees and shrubs, which aids in identifying the ancient plant remains found in the excavations.

[24] Excavations at Gorée have also uncovered numerous European imports: bricks, nails, bottles from alcoholic beverages such as wine, beer and other liquor, beads, ceramics and gunflints.

[23] They deposited on Gorée soil a cake, a mirror and a piece of paper with a cross drawn on it, all of which were intended to be symbols for peaceful actions.

According to preliminary results by Ibrahim Thiaw, the levels between the pre and post European contact deposits were characterized by an obvious infestation of termite nests.

[25] Deposits of the pre-European period are dense with pottery decorated with twine and fish vertebrae motifs and could be found in the domestic settlement context, under or at the same levels of floors and fireplaces.

The first kinds of deposition are located on the northwestern and western part of the island, and were typically three metres of domestic debris and shell midden.

This debris includes nails, European late pearlware and early whiteware with similar patterns dating from 1810 to 1849, sardine cans, and window glass, among other artifacts.

Archaeology shows this development in the soil; the constructions, levelling, reconstructions, some of which can be linked to a change in the European ruler at the time.

[23] However, this evidence of development too show results of the consequences from contemporary activity, thus it is an intricate puzzle to determine complex social identities and groups, such as slave or free or African or Afro-European.

[23] An overall deduction can be made however: Atlantic trade significantly impacts the lives of those on Gorée, seen in the influx of ideas, complex identities and settlement structure.

The massive import of alcoholic beverages naturally suggests a high level of consumption which its effects have been recorded as drunken conflicts, commonly between the military inhabitants.

[26] The previously mentioned Dr Ibrahima Thiaw is also the author of Digging on Contested Grounds: Archaeology and the Commemoration of Slavery on Gorée Island.

"[29] On the southcentral end of Gorée, in the Bambara quarter, although less abundant in artifacts, the deposits from this area differ in sediment inclusions from the rest of the island.

Inclusions such as limestone, red bricks, shell, or stones in these two to three meter depositions are no older than the eighteenth century and shows frequent building up and tearing down processes.

However, the construction of these architectural buildings were most likely built by the slaves, and without floor plans, as indicated by the haphazard city layout and irregular angles in the rooms.

[34] Ndiaye's graphic descriptions of the conditions of the slaves allegedly kept at the "Maison des Esclaves" are not supported by any historical documentation[35] and according to De Roux, they may have served to drum up business, especially from African-American tourists.

[36] In response to these accusations, several Senegalese and European researchers convened a symposium at the Sorbonne in April 1997, entitled "Gorée dans la traite atlantique : mythes et réalités", whose proceedings were published afterwards.

This was spearheaded by the Senegalese government, begun under President Léopold Sédar Senghor, who had tasked his special appointee Ndiaye with this goal.

In 2013, journalist Jean Luc Angrand chronicled[39] how Ndiaye began his lobbying campaign among African-American communities in the US, as he tried to capitalize on their desire to look for their own heritage in Africa that arose in the 1970s.

Greek avantgarde classical composer Iannis Xenakis wrote a piece for harpsichord and ensemble entitled A l`ile de Gorée (1986).