The Rise of British West Africa

Claude George

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9781138010901
• eBook ISBN:
  9781136963292
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

First Published in 1967. Herodotus claims that the earliest voyage for exploring Africa was made by an African, Pharaoh Necho in B.C. 600. This title sets out to assess this claim and explore the future explorations with reference to, arguably, the most memorable voyage by Hanno of Carthage in B.C. 450. George spans a range of sources going as far as 1827 to produce an extensive study on the rise of British West Africa.

THE RISE OF

BRITISH WEST AFRICA

CHAPTER I.

DISCOVERY AND DESCRIPTION OF SIERRA LEONE

SIERRA LEONE, or more correctly, the peninsula of Sierra Leone, is built on a river of that name, and was known to the ancient geographers as the River Mitomba or Bitomba, Tagrin, Hesperi Cornu, and the Kingdom of Bure. It was discovered by the Portuguese navigator, Pedro di Cintra, in 1463, and his countrymen were the first European people to form a settlement there. It is situate at about 8 degrees 30 minutes N. latitude and

degrees W. longitude, and was first known to Englishmen in 1562, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when Sir John Hawkins, the renowned pirate and freebooter, on one of his filibustering expeditions, landed there, making free use of fire and sword, and, after indulging in every act of atrocity with which his nature was peculiarly endowed, captured 300 of the Natives and stowed them away to the West Indies, where he sold them as slaves.

The name Sierra Leone seems to have been derived from the Latin, through the Spanish or Portuguese “serra,” a saw, and “liona,” or “leda,” a lion, and would therefore mean a lion with jagged mane, or a recumbent lion.

Various have been the interpretations given; some, like Barbot,* hold that the place so called once abounded in lions. Cadamosta, in his relation of the voyage of Pedro di Cintra, derives it from the sound of thunder-peals which are heard about the range of the Sierra Leone mountains. Harduin, in his notes upon Pliny,† derives it from the noise of the surfs beating on the shores, the sound of which resembles the roar of lions.

But continued residence in this locality reveals the facts:—

1. That there is no trace, as yet discovered, of this monarch beast having once been resident on these mountains. There are traces of the elephant, the ourang, the tiger, the boar, and various other wild beasts on the Sugar Loaf and Horton Mountains, but not of the lion.

2. That thunder-peals are heard eastward, westward, northward, and southward, but not in such a manner as to warrant the belief that they originate behind the range of these mountains.

3. That surfs do not beat, whenever they beat at all, with the vehemence of the roar of lions in the deep recesses of the Bay, or rather the Gulf of Sierra Leone, which is formed by the embracing arms of Cape Ledo or Tagrin and the foreshore in the rear of Leopards’ Island.

It is, therefore, more consonant with the facts of actual experience to interpret the name as having been given to it from the appearance which the chain of mountains presents at some distance from the harbour as one approaches the shore.

Free Town, the capital of Sierra Leone, was so called from the principle of the formation of the Colony, which was to establish a free settlement, to be made on the Grain Coast of Africa, for the happy settlement of blacks and people of colour who wished to migrate to the new Colony of Sierra Leone. This appears in the Temporary Regulations drawn up by Mr. Granville Sharp, and approved by the English Government in 1787. The principle is thus stated:—“As soon as a slave sets his foot within the bounds of the new settlement he shall be deemed a free man, and be entitled equally with the rest of the inhabitants to the protection of the laws and to all the natural rights of humanity.”

The idea of establishing Sierra Leone as a free negro settlement was first suggested by Dr. Smeathman to Dr. Knowles in a series of letters dated 1783.* Dr. Smeathman had been resident for several years on the Plantain Islands in Sierra Leone, the Natives of which place delighted to call him “Fly-catcher.” In August of the same year, Mr. Sharp in his private memorandum sketched an outline of a plan for a settlement on the coast of Africa which “will deserve all encouragement if the Settlers are absolutely prohibited from holding any kind of property in the persons of men as slaves, and from selling either man, woman, or child.”

ABORIGINES OF SIERRA LEONE

The ancient inhabitants of the peninsula are supposed to have been the Old Capez. But about the year 1505 of the Christian Era, the Cumba Manes, or Temnez, now Temnes, came down from a very far country inland, fell upon the peaceful inhabitants—the Capez—who were deemed the most polite nation of all Guinea, killed some and captured others and sold them to the Portuguese, who had just then arrived in the peninsula. Of the rest, many gave themselves up to voluntary slavery in order to escape the rough handling of the Temnes; but a great many remained, and there were often serious reprisals between them and the Temnes until, by frequent intercourse with the Portuguese, the Temnes became somewhat civilised and their natural ferocity considerably subdued, but they still aimed at supremacy, and dispossessed the Capez, and soon became owners of the country by force of arms.

GOVERNMENT

Both these people were subject to the King of Quoja, or Quoia, but they had each a chief of their own who administered justice.

FORMATION OF SETTLEMENT

The causes that led to the formation of the Sierra Leone Settlement were:—

1. The number of Negroes that had joined the British Army, having proved loyal to England during the American War of Independence until its close in 1783, was overwhelming, and they wanted a home. Some of them had been sent to the Bahamas and others to Nova Scotia and there set free. Many of those incorporated with the British soldiers were taken over to England, and, on being disbanded, became objects of pity throughout the streets of London from want and destitution.

2. The decision of Lord Chief Justice Mansfield in the case of James Somerset, May, 1772, and of Jonathan Strong, 1765, which had made it a living and active principle in the Legislature of the British Empire that “slaves cannot breathe in England,” had turned out of the homes of their masters a great number of destitute and indigent Blacks, too numerous to satisfy with England’s parochial bounties and philanthropic institutions.

BLACK POOR COMMITTEE.

As a remedial agency, a number of kind-hearted Englishmen formed themselves into a “Committee for Relieving the Black Poor.” In 1786 Mr. Sharp published his “Plan of a Settlement to be made near Sierra Leone on the Grain Coast of Africa; intended more particularly for the Service and happy Establishment of Blacks and People of Colour to be supplied as free men under the direction of the Committee for Relieving the Black Poor, and the Protection of the British Government.” The Blacks of London having heard of the proposed settlement offered to go as pioneers of the new Colony. To the plan above mentioned the Committee of the Black Poor attached a handbill inviting all Blacks who wished to migrate to the Settlement to apply to Dr. Smeathman, a fellow-philanthropist of Mr. Sharp’s, and to whom the formation of the Settlement had been entrusted.

Captain Thompson, R.N., was selected to pioneer the new Settlers to their new home, and on arrival selected a tract of mountainous country, called the Peninsula of Sierra Leone, as the site of the new settlement, which he purchased of the Native chiefs for the service of His Britannic Majesty.

The commencement of the settlement was very inauspicious, as general unhealthiness set in, due partly to long detention in the Channel, partly to sea-sickness aggravated by excessive indulgence in alcoholic stimulants, as the Whites who had embarked with them were chiefly men and women of an abandoned character. The season of the year also at which they landed assisted to aggravate the situation; and in a short time after, their number had been reduced almost to utter annihilation.

FOUNDATION OF NEW TOWNSHIP

There was, however, a number of them sufficiently strong to lay out the site of the Colony. Three hundred and sixty-four lots of an acre each were marked, and streets laid out on the southern side of the river, and lots were distributed on the 12th of June, 1787.

NEWS OF THE COLONY REACHED MR. GRANVILLE SHARP

News of the misfortunes and gradual progress of the infant Colony had reached their patron, Mr. Sharp, and in October he wrote his brother, Dr. Sharp, as follows: “I have heard but melancholy accounts of my poor, ill-thriven, swarthy daughter, the unfortunate Colony of Sierra Leone. They have, however, purchased twenty miles square of the finest and most beautiful country, they all allow, that was ever seen. The hills are not steeper than Shooter’s Hill, and fine streams of fresh water run down the hill on either side of the new township; and in front is a noble bay where the river is about three leagues wide. The woods and groves are beautiful beyond description, and the soil very fine, so that a little management may with God’s blessing still produce a thriving settlement.”

MISFORTUNES OF THE COLONISTS

The misfortunes of the settlers increased, after this, by the death of their principal guides and the desertion of many of the settlers. Among the former class were Mr. Irwin, Agent Conductor, who died on 12th July; Mr. Richards, the Gardener; and Mr. Gessau, the Town-Major.

The Chaplain, the Rev. Mr. Fraser, had to retire on account of continued ill-health, after a year’s stay in the Colony, so that the people were left desperately alone; hence the degradation to which they were falling, had not the never-tiring vigilance and inexhaustible liberality of Mr. Sharp, to rescue the Colony from imminent collapse, sent the brig Myro, at his private expense, laden principally with provisions and necessaries. Thirty-nine passengers, white and black, sailed in that vessel, among whom were Mr. Irwin, son of the late Agent Conductor, and Messrs. Peale and Lacitus, surgeons of extensive abilities. This reinforcement brought timely relief to Sierra Leone and rescued it from utter ruin.

DISPERSION OF THE SETTLERS

It had happened that a Captain Savage, of H.M. ship Pomona, had burnt down King Jimi’s Town when on a cruise along the coast.

As Paramount Chief of ro-Marong, Bure, or Timna, King Jimi summoned a formal Council of his headmen in his Barë, or Court House, when the Council resolved that the new settlement should be plundered in revenge for the injury done him by Captain Savage.

Accordingly, a three days’ notice to quit was given the settlers on honourable terms, when they endeavoured to collect as much as they could of their property and to escape in various directions. This happened in November, 1789. They subsequently collected themselves together at Bob’s Island, and had dispersed before the chiefs carried out to the very letter the promise of their threats.

THE ST. GEORGE’S BAY COMPANY

It was just about this time that a number of gentlemen in England, anxious to promote the civilisation of Africa and to collect the remnant of the dispersed Settlers, associated themselves under the name of the St. George’s Bay Company. Their object was to open and establish a trade in the natural productions of Africa to the Free Settlement in St. George’s Harbour. They therefore assumed the title of St. George’s Bay Company, which Company was subsequently incorporated into the Sierra Leone Company; ostensively a trading corporation, but really a benevolent institution “united for the purpose of carrying forward the benevolent designs of its founder,” Mr. Granville Sharp; and His Majesty’s Government was approached, praying for the grant of a charter of incorporation.

MR. FALCONBRIDGE AND GRANVILLE TOWN, 1790–1

Meanwhile the Company’s Agent, Mr. Falcon-bridge, was sent out to the spot, and commissioned to examine and report on the state of the Colony, and to take precautionary measures for the relief of the Settlers, pending the grant of the Royal Charter.

Arriving about a year after the dispersion of the colonists, Mr. Falconbridge collected as many of them as he could find at Bance and Bob’s Islands, and settled them down on the north-eastern side of Free Town (near the present Cline Town), to which the name Granville Town was given, after the name of their protector and benefactor. Here he left them, after some time, richly furnished with all necessaries and in a thriving condition; “likely with very little labour to maintain themselves in the same manner as before their dispersion.” Their number at this time was sixty-four in all. As coming under the subject of his mission, Mr. Falconbridge purchased again from King Nembana, King of Sierra Leone, and his subordinate chiefs, all the lands already purchased by Captain Thompson in 1787, for goods valued at £30.

THE SIERRA LEONE COMPANY INCORPORATED

In 1791 the St. George’s Bay Company was incorporated by an Act of Parliament under the title of “The Sierra Leone Company.” Immediately after the incorporation, the Society proceeded to the election of officers and members; and there figured in the list of Directors such names as William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson, Granville Sharp, and Mr. Thornton. To carry out their project, a capital of £230,000 was raised, and schemes for augmenting the number of Settlers in the Colony were formulating, when, by a fortuitous circumstance, in the same year, 1791, a Negro, Thomas Peters by name, arrived in England from Nova Scotia, as a deputation from his countrymen then living there, who had been sent thither in 1783. Peters was sent on an embassy to the people of England to represent to them their situation. “My people have sent me to inform you, sirs,” he said, “that the climate of Nova Scotia has been unfavourable to them. The grants of land, contrary to promise, have been withheld from them, and we cannot live any longer there. We wish to go to the new Settlement at Sierra Leone.”

LIEUTENANT JOHN CLARKSON, R.N.

The Directors lost no time in availing themselves of this opportunity, and, having obtained the aid of the British Government, which promised to defray the transport expense of the free Blacks from Nova Scotia, engaged the services of Lieutenant John Clarkson, brother of the philanthropist, Mr. Thomas Clarkson; he, on the 19th August, set sail for Nova Scotia.

EMBARKATION OF SECOND BATCH OF SETTLERS, 1792

On reaching the island, Lieutenant John Clarkson found that not less than 1,196 persons, consisting of members of various families, were ready to leave for Sierra Leone, all of whom embarked in a fleet of sixteen ships under Lieutenant Clarkson’s command.

Meanwhile, the Directors of the Sierra Leone Company, in anticipation of the dearth they conceived might follow from an abnormal disproportion between demand and supply of foodstuff in the Colony, manned three ships deeply laden with provisions, the earliest of which arrived in t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• INTRODUCTION
• HISTORY OF AFRICAN SLAVERY
• CHAPTER I. DISCOVERY AND DESCRIPTION OF SIERRA LEONE
• CHAPTER II. A FRENCH INVASION
• CHAPTER III. THE SETTLERS’ RISING
• CHAPTER IV. EVENTS OF 1800
• CHAPTER V. THE TEMNE RISINGS
• CHAPTER VI. THE BANANAS ISLANDS
• CHAPTER VII. THE SIERRA LEONE COMPANY
• CHAPTER VIII. SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF THE SIERRA LEONE COMPANY, 1791–1807
• CHAPTER IX. OBSERVATIONS ON THE PRECEDING CHAPTER
• CHAPTER X. FORTIFICATIONS OF THE COLONY
• CHAPTER XI. A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE CONSTITUTION, 1787–1807
• CHAPTER XII. THE AFRICAN INSTITUTION, 1808–27
• CHAPTER XIII. COMMISSION OF INQUIRY INTO THE STATE OF THE SETTLEMENT, 1810
• CHAPTER XIV. SOME IMPORTANT EVENTS
• CHAPTER XV. COLONIAL CHURCHES
• CHAPTER XVII. VARIOUS ELEMENTS IN THE POPULATION OF THE COLONY
• CHAPTER XVIII. FINANCIAL CONDITION OF THE CIVIL ESTABLISHMENT, ETC
• CHAPTER XIX. DISBANDMENT OF WEST INDIA REGIMENTS, ETC
• CHAPTER XX. TABLE ALLOWANCE TO GOVERNOR, ETC
• CHAPTER XXI. POSTAL COMMUNICATION BETWEEN SIERRA LEONE AND THE UNITED KINGDOM, ETC
• CHAPTER XXII. UNIFORMS OF COLONIAL GOVERNORS AND OTHER SUPERIOR OFFICERS OF THE CIVIL ESTABLISHMENT, ETC
• CHAPTER XXIII. THE QUAIA AND PORT LOCCO EXPEDITIONS
• CHAPTER XXIV. BANCE ISLAND
• CHAPTER XXV. APPOINTMENT OF MAJOR-GENERAL SIR NEIL CAMPBELL
• CHAPTER XXVI. HISTORY OF THE SETTLEMENTS ON THE GAMBIA
• CHAPTER XXVII. ANNEXATION OF THE SETTLEMENTS ON THE GOLD COAST
• CHAPTER XXVIII. REPORT OF INQUIRY INTO THE STATE OF THE SETTLEMENT, 1826
• CHAPTER XXIX. THE VILLAGES, OR LIBERATED AFRICAN TOWNS
• CHAPTER XXX. AGRICULTURE, ETC
• CHAPTER XXXI. CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT, 1808–27
• CHAPTER XXXII. EDUCATION
• CHAPTER XXXIII. RELIGION
• CHAPTER XXXIV. THE CLIMATE OF SIERRA LEONE
• APPENDIX A
• APPENDIX B
• APPENDIX C