Sierra Leone: Colonization to Independence

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Colonial Era s- the Portuguese began using the country as a major port in the transatlantic slave trade (Just after the American War of Independence) the British established a colony at Freetown and began settling freed slaves about (400) returning from Great Britain and the United States. They bought the land from a Temne chief the settlement for freed or escaped slaves became an official colony with a British governor Great Britain established a protectorate over an area that included the Freetown colony and the interior Britain competed and even fought the French for colonial control over West Africa

Colonial era continued The first settlement struggled in the harsh environment Some of the local Africans resented the freed slaves because they had taken on many of the customs, religion (Christianity) and even the language of the Europeans. William Wilberforce (a British politician who worked to end the slave trade) wanted even more land for former slaves. The Sierra Leone Company was formed and a larger settlement was designed at what would be called Freetown. It would receive a more black settlers from Nova Scotia - freed slaves who had escaped from America - worried that they would be re-enslaved if they remained there.

The end of slavery in Britain slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire. (Slavery in the United States ends after the Civil War in 1865) This meant that more people would make the trek to Freetown. However the end of slavery also meant the economic stagnation of West Africa as fewer European ships were now attracted to the coast.

Sierra Leonean society stayed remarkably divided. Those who returned to the colony had little in common with the Africans who lived in the interior. They tended to keep their own language, religion and customs and ways of life separate from each other. This division would play a significant part in destabilizing Sierra Leone once it had attained its independence from Britain in 1961.

Flag 1961