Sierra Leone - British Colony
Freetown, was founded in 1787 as a home for repatriated former slaves from London and the Americas. Sitting on a coastal peninsula, the city overlooks the Sierra Leone Harbor, the world’s third largest natural harbor. Sierra Leone was of not-inconsiderable importance to Britain at various times, for cvariou reasons. At first it was a source of slaves, then a place where freed slaves could be returned to African. Later, the Navy often insisted upon the importance of Sierra Leone as a coaling station. At one time it was suggested that that station should be abandoned, but by 1896 there was no difference of opinion as to the importance of the place.
In 1562 the English joined the trade in slaves when Sir John Hawkins bought 300 slaves. In 1652, the first slaves in North America were brought from Sierra Leone to the Sea Islands off the coast of the southern United States. British traders of the Royal African company established Forts along the coast for trading in 1672 but the British did not have monopoly on the area. Rival European nations attacked the Forts. Admiral de Ruyter is noted to having sacked Tasso Island in 1664 as a reaction to the maltreatment of Dutch traders. In 1728, Afro-Portuguese traders captured the New Royal African Company’s fort at Bunce Island.
During the 1700s there was a thriving trade bringing slaves from Sierra Leone to the plantations of South Carolina and Georgia where their rice-farming skills made them particularly valuable.
In 1787 the British helped 400 freed slaves from the United States, Nova Scotia, and Great Britain return to Sierra Leone to settle in what they called the "Province of Freedom." A number of Black Poor and White women arrived off the coast of Sierra Leone on May 15, 1787, accompanied by some English tradesmen. This was organized by the St. George's Bay Company, composed of British philanthropists who preferred it as a solution to continuing to financially support them in London. Many of the Black poor were African Americans, who had been promised their freedom for joining the British Army during the American Revolution, but also included other African and Asian inhabitants of London.
Disease and hostility from the indigenous people nearly eliminated the first group of returnees. Through intervention by Thomas Peters, the Sierra Leone Company was established to relocate another group of former slaves, this time nearly 1,200 Black Nova Scotians, most of whom had escaped slavery in the United States. Given the most barren land in Nova Scotia, many had died from the harsh winters there. They joined the original settlers, the Maroons, and established a settlement at Freetown in 1792 led by Thomas Peters. Another group of slaves rebelled in Jamaica and travelled to Freetown in 1800. This group was later joined by other groups of freed slaves and became the first Afro-American haven for ex-slaves.
Though the English abolitionist Granville Sharp originally planned Sierra Leone as a utopian community, the directors of the Sierra Leone Company refused to allow the settlers to take freehold of the land. Knowing how Highland Clearances benefited Scottish landlords but not tenants, the settlers revolted in 1799. The revolt was only put down by the arrival of over 500 Jamaican Maroons, who also arrived via Nova Scotia.
Thousands of slaves were returned to or liberated in Freetown. Most chose to remain in Sierra Leone. These returned Africans -- or Krio [creole] as they came to be called -- were from all areas of Africa, but principally the west coast. Cut off from their homes and traditions by the experience of slavery, they assimilated some aspects of British styles of life and built a flourishing trade of flowers and beads on the West African coast.
The lingua franca of the colony was Krio, a creole language rooted in 18th century African American English, which quickly spread across the region as a common language of trade and Christian mission. British and American abolitionist movements envisioned Freetown as embodying the possibilities of a post-slave trade Africa.
Through the efforts of men such as William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharpe, Lord Mansfield formed an administration in 1806, which was instrumental in the British Empire’s abolition of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade (1807). The British established a naval base in Freetown to patrol against illegal slave ships. A fine of £100 was established for every slave found on a British ship.
In 1808 Sierra Leone officially became a crown colony with the land possessions of Sierra Leone Company (formerly known as St George’s Bay Company) transferred to the crown. The colony was dedicated to demonstrating the principles of Christianity, “civilisation” and commerce.
In 1833 British Parliament passed the Emancipation Act, and in 1833 slavery was finally abolished. It wasn’t until 1865; the United States passed the 13th amendment abolishing slavery. By 1855, over 50,000 freed slaves has been settled in Freetown. Known as the Krios, the repatriated settlers of Freetown live today in a multi-ethnic country. Though English is the official language krio is widely spoken throughout the country allowing different tribal groups a common language.
In the early 19th century, Freetown served as the residence of the British governor who also ruled the Gold Coast (now Ghana) and The Gambia settlements. Sierra Leone served as the educational center of British West Africa as well. Fourah Bay College, established in 1827, rapidly became a magnet for English-speaking Africans on the West Coast. For more than a century, it was the only European-style university in western Sub-Saharan Africa.
Sierra Leone (Lion Hill) colony by 1880 was eighteen miles long by twelve in breadth, and its area, take it all in all, is less than three hundred square miles. Freetown was the capital, and it was technically understood to be the political head-quarters of British possessions, extending its vague municipal or rather metropolitan authority to the coast lying between 20° of northern and 20s southern latitude. Between Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast intervened the free Republic of Liberia.
Most of the 20th century history of the colony was peaceful, and independence was achieved without violence. The 1951 constitution provided a framework for decolonization. Local ministerial responsibility was introduced in 1953, when Sir Milton Margai was appointed Chief Minister. He became Prime Minister after successful completion of constitutional talks in London in 1960.
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