Origins In the 1780s, London was home to several thousand freed slaves and
Black Pioneers, who had gained their freedom fighting on the side of the
British in the
American Revolutionary War. After several avenues to employment were closed to them, many of the Black Poor ended up destitute, and received support from the
Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor. This Committee eventually decided to persuade several hundred members of the Black Poor community to emigrate to Africa. The Sierra Leone Resettlement Scheme was proposed by entomologist
Henry Smeathman and drew interest from humanitarians like
Granville Sharp, who saw it as a means of showing the pro-slavery lobby that black people could contribute towards the running of the new colony of Sierra Leone. Government officials soon became involved in the scheme as well, although their interest was spurred by the possibility of resettling a large group of poor citizens elsewhere.
William Pitt the Younger, prime minister and leader of the
Tory party, had an active interest in the Scheme, because he saw it as a means to repatriate the Black Poor to Africa, since "it was necessary they should be sent somewhere, and be no longer suffered to infest the streets of London". The British made an agreement with a
Temne chief
King Tom to have land on the coast for the settlement of freed slaves. In 1787, a naval vessel carrying 411 passengers, including freed slaves, Black Pioneers, their white wives, and mixed-race children, arrived on the coast. Opponents of miscegenation incorrectly labelled the white wives of these black men as prostitutes. The settlement became known as
Granville Town. Half of the settlers in the new colony died within the first year. Several black settlers started working for local slave traders. The settlers who remained, forcibly captured land from a local chieftain, but he retaliated, attacking the settlement, which was reduced to a mere 64 settlers comprising 39 black men, 19 black women, and six white women. The settlers were captured by unscrupulous traders and sold into slavery, and the remaining colonists were forced to arm themselves for their own protection. King Tom's successor King Jemmy attacked and burned the colony in 1789. A new colony was built on another site and became known as
Freetown. In 1792 approximately 1,200
Nova Scotian Settlers, freed slaves and Black Pioneers from
Nova Scotia, and in 1800 another 551
Jamaican Maroons from the
Colony of Jamaica came to the new settlement. The first Christian missionaries,
Peter Hartwig and
Melchior Renner arrived in 1804 with the
Church Missionary Society The British government abolished the slave trade in 1807. It took responsibility of Sierra Leone in 1808 and made it a
Crown colony. On 31 August 1896, the hinterland of Sierra Leone became a British protectorate, thus creating Sierra Leone Protectorate. On the conclusion of talks in London on 4 May 1960, the United Kingdom agreed to grant Sierra Leone independence on 27 April 1961. On 27 April 1961 Sierra Leone was granted independence at a large ceremony in
Freetown. Bands played, the
Union Jack was lowered, respectfully folded, and handed to the
Duke of Kent (at the time
Prince Edward), the new blue, white and green flag of Sierra Leone was raised in its place, the Duke of Kent and Margai shook hands and the crowd cheered. The last British Governor of Sierra Leone was sworn in by the new independent government as the Governor-General (
Queen Elizabeth II's representative to the new country.) There was a brief state of emergency, as opposition leader
Siaka Stevens, whose political party the
All People's Congress (APC) had lost the previous elections to Margai boycotted the ceremony, and it was feared would try to sabotage the handover of power. It was feared the APC would attempt to incite riots, on this basis Stevens was placed under house arrest prior to the ceremony and released shortly afterwards. Ultimately however the transfer of power proved to be entirely peaceful. Messages of congratulations were sent from Prime Minister
Harold Macmillan and from Queen Elizabeth to the people of Sierra Leone and to Margai personally. Sierra Leone was granted independence as a dominion, along the same lines that Canada and Australia had been earlier, this meant that Sierra Leone was now an independent country with its own parliament and its own Prime Minister, however, Queen Elizabeth would remain the head of state. Thus began the history of the
Dominion of Sierra Leone.
Independence Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate lasted until 1961 when it gained independence from the United Kingdom, with
Elizabeth II as
Queen of Sierra Leone. It retained her as head of state
for a decade until 1971, when the country became a republic. ==See also==