Contents
Collection Access
Sierra Leone collection with supplements about the Atlantic Slave Trade
Descriptive Summary
- Repository
-
University of Illinois at Chicago,
801 S. MorganChicago, ILUSA
- Repository Number
- MSSL69
- Title
- Sierra Leone collection with supplements about the Atlantic Slave Trade,
- Dates
- 1734-1948
- Quantity
- 7.0 linear feet.
- Abstract
- This collection focuses primarily on the British administration of Sierra Leone, 1691-1833. The collection consists of items related to the British administration of Sierra Leone, including public and private papers of British officials in the colony of Sierra Leone, 1792-1825.
- Language of the Material
- English
Administrative Information
Biography/Profile
Although Sierra Leone has a rich history before contact with Europeans, this collection focuses primarily on the British administration of Sierra Leone, 1791-1833. In 1787, a group of over 400 free "blacks" from England, some destitute sailors from India, and some white women moved to Sierra Leone and founded a colony, with support from the Crown. The colony did not succeed, but interest in the project did not disappear. In 1791, a new British organization called the Sierra Leone Company wanted both to provide free blacks with land in Africa and to establish a profitable trade in African goods.
Some of the Africans and descendants of Africans had become free during the American Revolution and moved to London. In 1792 Lt. John Clarkson, a representative of the Sierra Leone Company, brought 1,100 former slaves from Nova Scotia, where they had settled after the British evacuated New York City following the American victory, to Sierra Leone in 1792. Together, they founded Freetown, and were soon joined by some Maroons from Jamaica in 1800. The colony was not a financial success, and the Sierra Leone Company transferred it to the British Government in 1808. The British government had outlawed the slave trade in 1807, and they used Sierra Leone as a naval outpost for antislavery patrols. Captain Edward Columbine became Governor in 1808. Liberated Africans continued to come to Sierra Leone, numbering over 85,000 by 1864. The British and the Nova Scotians turned Freetown into a Christian community, which they accomplished through missionary work and schools. Still, a large Muslim population remained. This created a Western-educated elite in Sierra Leone, and many of these people and their descendents became a vital part of the region's economy, religion, and civic life.
Historical material taken from:
Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Accessed at http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-55344/Sierra-Leone, Sept. 25, 2006.
Fyfe, Christopher. A History of Sierra Leone. London: Oxford University Press, 1962.
The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th Ed., 2001-2005. Accessed at http://www.bartleby.com/65/si/SierraLe.html, Sept. 25, 2006.
Scope and Content
The collection consists of items related to the British administration of Sierra Leone, including public and private papers of British officials in the colony of Sierra Leone, 1792-1825. The journal (March-August 1792) of Lt. John Clarkson, R.N. (1763-1828), brother of the more famous abolitionist Thomas Clarkson and first governor of the Freetown settlement in Sierra Leone, and the papers of Captain Edward Columbine (d. 1811), Governor of Sierra Leone from 1808-1811, document the establishment and administration of the colony as well as the British attempt to suppress the West African slave trade. Geographic and ethnological descriptions of Sierra Leone and neighboring territories are provided in the reports kept by British envoys to the indigenous officials, 1802-1806. The collection also includes the journal of Lt. George William Courtney, whose ship patrolled the West African coast from December 1823 to June 1825 seizing illegal slave vessels.
Access Restrictions
Access restrictions -- Available without restriction.
Use/Re-use Restrictions
Use restrictions -- Available without restriction.
Preferred Citation
Sierra Leone collection, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Illinois at Chicago
Indexed Terms
- Africa, West
- Blacks--Colonization
- Diaries
- Politics and government
- Sierra Leone
- Slave trade
- Travel
- Clarkson, John, 1764-1828
- Columbine, Edward, -1811
- Courtney, George William
- Sierra Leone Company.
Inventory
- Title
- Documents - broadsides, terms of agreement, ship charter, certificates of land grant and proposed plans for towns
- Dates
- 1791-1791
- Title
- Pamphlet - "Reasons Against Giving a Territorial Grant to a Company of Merchants to Colonize and Cultivate the Peninsula of Sierra Leone, on the Coast of Africa"
- Dates
- 1791-1791
- Title
- Reports - Description of the sailing from Halifax, Nova Scotia; list of Methodists and Baptists among the settlers; reports of the early days of the Freetown settlement
- Dates
- 1792-1792
Released on 2020-03-18.
- Title
- Manuscript Diary of John Clarkson - Daily journal with copies of letters and reports detailing the founding of Freetown
- Dates
- 1792-1792
- Title
- Letters from Freetown Settlers - petitions, complains, and requests addressed to the Governor
- Dates
- 1792-1793
- Title
- Correspondence with "King" Naimbanna - requests by the native ruler for supplies and Clarkson's reply
- Dates
- 1792-1792
- Title
- Letter and report book, Royal Commission of Inquiry - Copies of correspondence between Colonial Office and Admiralty authorizing a survey of the west coast of Africa following the British abolition of the slave trade
- Dates
- 1808-1810
- Title
- Journals of British Envoys - Alexander Smith; Thomas Ludlum; J. Hill
- Dates
- 1802-1806
- Title
- Daily Journal - Describes Columbine's first voyage to Africa as a member of he Commission of Inquiry, the attack on Senegal and his second voyage from England to become governor of Sierra Leone
- Dates
- 1809-1810
- Title
- Memoranda made on my voyage to Africa in H.M. Ship Crocodile in the years 1809-1810
- Dates
- 1809-1811
- Title
- Public Papers, Africa - Copies of correspondence with and dispatches from the Colonial Office; notes and reports on social and economic affairs of the colony; reports on the indigenous political structures, and on the slave trade
- Dates
- 1809-1810
- Title
- "Journal 1811 after my return from Bance Island" - refers to the activities of a German slave trader, Daniel Botifeur, and to the arrival in Sierra Leone of the African-American Quaker, businessman, and abolitionist, Paul Cuffee
- Dates
- 1811-1811
- Title
- Laws of Sierra Leone - Series of petitions, acts and bills read at meeting of the Council of Sierra Leone with copies of bills enacted
- Dates
- 1801-1829
- Title
- Royal Warrants - appointing John T. Williams Commissary Judge at the Settlement of Sierra Leone in accordance with the Treaties with the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal for preventing their subjects from engaging in the slave trade, signed by King George IV
- Dates
- 1825-1825
- Title
- Mitchener, Lt. George - Commander of the Brig, "Protector" - Reports of a cruise to Whydah (now Ouidah) and Benin
- Dates
- 1811-1811
- Title
- Courtenay, Lt. George W., Commander of H.M.S. "Bann." West African Journal, -- Describes his experiences as a member of the anti-slavery patrol on the West African Coast, including visits to Sierra Leone and the new US colony that would become Liberia
- Dates
- 1823-1825
- Title
- Jackson, Richard M. "Journal of a Voyage to Bonny River on the West Coast of Africa in the Ship Kingston from Liverpool" - discusses a trading voyage, a trip to the Bight of Biafra and the West African slave trade
- Dates
- 1825-1826
- Title
- Lander, John (1807-1839) and Richard (1804-1935) - correspondence of the British diplomats from their expedition on the Niger River
- Dates
- 1830-1834
- Title
- Anti-slave trade movement - Great Britain - correspondence - Gustavus Vassa (Oloudah Equiano) to Granville Sharp
- Dates
- 1780
- Language of the Material
- English
- Title
- Anti-slave trade movement - Great Britain - correspondence - Thomas Clarkson
- Dates
- 1807-1844
- Title
- Anti-slave trade movement - Great Britain - published accounts of the conditions of slaves in the West Indian colonies
- Dates
- 1816-1828
- Title
- Anti-slave trade movement - Great Britain - pamphlets
- Dates
- 1823-1833
- Title
- Anti-slave trade movement - Great Britain - correspondence - Zachary Macaulay to Thomas Harrison
- Dates
- 1759-1838
- Title
- Missionaries - Africa - manuscript notebook
- Dates
- 1796-1796
- Title
- Slave trade - Great Britain - printed bill providing temporary regulations guiding the transport of slaves
- Dates
- 1798-1798
- Title
- Slave trade - Great Britain - Treaty and Acts relating to the slave trade
- Dates
- 1824-1843
- Title
- Slavery - Great Britain - printed abstract of the slave population in each of the British slave colonies
- Dates
- 1830-1830
- Title
- Slavery - Great Britain - West Indies - manuscript copy of the case and opinion concerning the regulations for the treadmill in British Guiana
- Dates
- 1833-1833
- Title
- African-American Seamen - official certificates of protection for African American seamen, protecting their rights as free men.
- Dates
- 1842-1854
- Title
- African-American Songs - printed score and lyrics
- Dates
- 1843, 1948
- Title
- Freedmen - broadsides, pamphlets and newspapers
- Dates
- 1863-1866
- Title
- Slavery - United States - manuscript original of slave bill of sale
- Dates
- 1792-1792
- Title
- Slavery - United States - manuscript original of slave bill of sale
- Dates
- 1795-1795
- Title
- Slavery - United States - manuscript original of slave bill of sale
- Dates
- 1829-1829
- Title
- Slavery - United States - receipt for payment due for the hire of a slave for one year
- Dates
- 1853-1862
- Title
- Fragment of book describing plantation slavery, written in German
- Dates
- n.d.
- Language of the Material
- German
Released on 2020-03-18.