Journal of an African Cruiser, 1845,
by Horatio Bridge, edited by Nathaniel Hawthorne:
CHAPTER XXI: Sierra Leone Sources of its Population—
Appearance of the Town and Surrounding Country—
Religious Ceremonies of the Mandingoes—
Treatment of liberated Slaves—Police of Sierra Leone—
Agencies for Emigration to the West Indies—
Colored Refugees from the United States—
Unhealthiness of Sierra Leone—Dr. Fergusson—
Splendid Church—Melancholy Fate of a Queen's Chaplain—Currency—
Probable Ruin of the Colony.
October 15 [1843].—We arrived off the point of Sierra Leone, last night, and were piloted up to the town, this morning.
This is one of the most important and interesting places on the coast of Africa. It was founded in 1787, chiefly through the benevolent agency of
Mr. Granville Sharp, as a place of refuge for a considerable number of colored persons, who had left their masters, and were destitute and
unsheltered in the streets of London. Five years later, the population of the colony was recruited by above a thousand slaves, who had fled from the
United States to Nova Scotia, during the American revolution. Again, in 1800, there was an addition of more than five hundred maroons, or outlawed
negroes, from Jamaica. And finally, since 1807, Sierra Leone has been the receptacle for the great numbers of native Africans liberated from
slave-ships, on their capture by British cruisers. Pensioners, with their families, from the black regiments in the West Indies, have likewise been
settled here. The population is now estimated at about forty-five thousand; a much smaller amount, probably, than the aggregate of all the
emigrants who have been brought hither. The colony has failed to prosper, but not through any lack of effort on the part of England. It is the
point, of all others on the African coast, where British energy, capital, and life, have been most profusely expended.
The aspect of the Cape, as you approach it from the sea, is very favorable. You discern cultivated hills, the white mansions of the
wealthy, and thatched cottages, neat and apparently comfortable, abodes of the poorer class. Over a space of several miles, the country appears to be
in a high state of improvement. One large village is laid out with the regularity of Philadelphia, consisting of seven parallel streets, kept
free from grass, with thatched huts on either side, around which are small plots of ground, full of bananas and plantain trees. The town itself is a
scene of far greater activity than any other settlement on the West Coast. Great numbers of negroes, of various tribes and marks, are to be seen
there. So mixed, indeed, is the colored population, that there is little sympathy or sense of fellowship among them. The Mandingoes seem to be the
most numerous, and are the most remarkable in personal appearance. Almost without exception, they are very tall figures, and wear white robes, and
high caps without visors.
These Mandingoes hold the faith of Mahomet, and at the time of our arrival, were celebrating the feast of the Ramazan. Several hundreds of
them paraded through the streets in a confused mass, occasionally stopping before some gentleman's house, and enacting sundry mummeries, in
consideration of which they expected to receive a present. In front of a house where I happened to be, the whole body were ranged in order; and two
of them, one armed with a gun, and the other with a bow and arrow, ran from end to end of the line, crouching down and pretending to be on the
watch against an enemy. At intervals, their companions, or a portion of them, raised a cry, like those which one hears in the mosques of Asia. The
above seemed to compose nearly all the ceremony; and our liberality was in proportion to the entertainment, consisting merely of a handful of
coppers, scattered broadcast among the multitude. When this magnificent guerdon was thus proffered to their acceptance, they forthwith forgot
their mummery, and joined in a general scramble. The king, or chief, now stept forward, and protested energetically against this mode of
distribution; it being customary to consign all the presents to him, to be disposed of according to his better judgment. However, the mob picked up
the coppers, and showed themselves indifferently well contented.
When cargoes of slaves are brought to Sierra Leone, they are placed in a receptacle called the Queen's Yard, where they remain until the
constituted authorities have passed judgment on the ship. This seldom requires more than a week. The liberated slaves are then apprenticed for
five, seven, or nine years; the Government requiring one pound ten shillings sterling from the person who takes them. Unless applicants come
forward, these victims of British philanthropy are turned adrift, to be supported as they may, or, unless Providence take all the better care of
them, to starve. For the sick, however, there is admittance to the Government Hospital; and the countrymen of the new-comers, belonging to
the same tribe, lend them such aid as is in their power. Food, consisting principally of rice, cassadas, and plantains, or bananas, is extremely
cheap; insomuch that a penny a day will supply a man with enough to eat. The market is plentifully supplied with meats, fowls, and vegetables, and
likewise with other articles, which may be tidbits to an African stomach, but are not to be met with in our bills of fare. For instance, among other
such delicacies, I saw several rats, each transfixed with a wooden skewer, and some large bats, looking as dry as if they had given up the ghost a
month ago. Supporting themselves on food of this kind, it is not to be wondered at, that the working-classes find it possible to live at a very
low rate of labor. The liberated slaves receive from four to six pence, and the Kroomen nine pence per diem; these wages constituting their sole
support.
As may be supposed, so heterogeneous and wild a population as that of Sierra Leone requires the supervision of a strict and energetic police.
Accordingly, the peace is preserved, and crimes prevented, by a whole army of constables, who, in a cheap uniform of blue cotton, with a white badge
on the arm, and a short club as their baton of office, patrol the streets, day and night. Their number cannot be less than two or three hundred.
There is a desire, in some quarters, to destroy the colony of Sierra Leone; and one of the means for accomplishing this end is, of procuring
the emigration of the colored colonists to the West Indies. For this purpose there are three different agencies. One has over its
door:—"British Guiana Emigration Office;" another is for Trinidad; and a third for Jamaica.
Great promises are made to persons proposing to emigrate; such as a free passage to the West Indies, wages of from seventy-five cents to a dollar
per day, and permission to return when they choose. Very few, however, of those who have been long resident here, can be induced to avail themselves
of these offers, small as are the earnings of labor at Sierra Leone. They believe that the stipulations are not observed; that emigrants, on their
arrival in the West Indies, will be called upon to pay their passages, and that it will not be at their option to return. In short, they suspect
emigration to be only a more plausible name for the slave-trade. The Kroomen are the class most sought for as emigrants, although negroes of
any tribe are greedily received. Even the Africans just re-captured are sent off, as the authorities are pleased to term it, "voluntarily." The
last emigration, consisting of somewhat less than two hundred and fifty persons, included seventy-six slaves, almost that instant landed from a
prize. A respectable merchant assured me, that these men were not permitted to communicate with their countrymen, but were hurried off to
the vessel, without knowing whither they were bound. The acting governor, Dr. Fergusson, denied the truth of this, although he admitted that the
seventy-six liberated slaves did emigrate to the West Indies, very soon after landing from the prize.
It is to be remarked, that the white inhabitants of Sierra Leone, as well as the colored people, entertain very unfavorable notions of this scheme
of procuring laborers for the West Indies. The best defence of it, perhaps, is, that neither blacks nor whites can flourish in this
settlement, and that a transportation from its poor soil and sickly climate, to any other region, may probably be for the better. But,
undeniably, the British government is less scrupulous as to the methods of carrying out its philanthropic projects, than most other nations in their
schemes of self-aggrandizement.
In Freetown, which is the residence of all the Europeans, are to be found what remains of the emigrants from Nova Scotia, and their descendants. The
whole number transported hither at several periods, was about fifteen hundred. Not more than seventy or eighty of these people, or their
progeny, now survive upon the spot. Our pilot is one of the number. He affirms, that his countrymen were promised fifty acres of land, each, in
Sierra Leone, on condition of relinquishing the land already in their possession in Nova Scotia. With this understanding they emigrated to
Africa; but, in more than half a century which has since elapsed, the government has never found it convenient to fulfil its obligations. Only
two or three acres have been assigned to each individual. Meantime, the body of emigrants has dwindled away, until the standard six feet of earth
by two, the natural inheritance of every human being, has sufficed for almost all of them, as well as fifty, or five thousand acres could have
done. These emigrants were the colonial slaves, who were taken or ran away from the United States, during the Revolutionary war. Considered
physically and statistically, their movement was anything but an advantageous one. It would be matter of curious speculation to inquire
into the relative proportions now alive, of slaves who remained upon our southern soil, and of these freed men, together with the amount of their
posterity. Not, of course, that it has been in any degree a fair experiment as to the result of emancipating and colonizing slaves. The
trial of that experiment has been left to America; and it has been commenced in a manner that might induce England to mistrust her own
beneficence, when she contrasts Liberia with Sierra Leone.
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see also: Senegal News - Guinea-Conakry - Liberia - Ghana
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All of Sierra Leone is
one time zone at GMT,
with no Daylight Savings time.
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Sierra Leone News
Continuously populated for at least 2,500 years, the dense jungle in the area of Sierra Leone allowed the region to remain relatively protected from invaders from empires in West Africa. Traders introduced Sierra Leone to Islam, which occupies a central role in Sierra Leonean culture and history.
In the 17th century, the British set up a trading post near present-day Freetown. The trade originally involved timber and ivory but later expanded to enslaved people. In 1787, following the American Revolution, Sierra Leone became a destination for Black British loyalists from the new United States.
After the abolition of the slave trade in 1807, British ships delivered thousands of liberated Africans to Sierra Leone. During the 19th century, the colony gradually expanded inland.
In 1961, Sierra Leone became independent of the UK. While Sierra Leone held free and fair elections in 1962 and 1967, Siaka STEVENS - Sierra Leone’s second prime minister - quickly reverted to authoritarian tendencies, outlawing most political parties and ruling from 1967 to 1985.
In 1991, Sierra Leonean soldiers launched a civil war against STEVENS’ ruling party. The war caused tens of thousands of deaths and displaced more than 2 million people (about one third of the population).
In 1998, a Nigerian-led West African coalition military force intervened, installing Tejan KABBAH - who was originally elected in 1996 - as prime minister. In 2002, KABBAH officially announced the end of the war. Since 1998, Sierra Leone has conducted uninterrupted democratic elections, dominated by the two main political parties.
In 2018, Julius Maada BIO of the Sierra Leone People’s Party won the presidential election that saw a high voter turnout despite some allegations of voter intimidation. The next presidential election is scheduled for March 2023.
CIA World Factbook: Sierra Leone
Area of Sierra Leone:
71,740 sq km
slightly smaller than South Carolina
Population of Sierra Leone:
8,908,040 (2023) | 6,144,562 (2007)
Languages of Sierra Leone:
English official, literate minority
Mende principal vernacular in the south
Temne principal vernacular in the north
Krio English-based Creole, spoken by the descendants of freed Jamaican slaves who were settled in the Freetown area, a lingua franca and a first language for 10% of the population but understood by 95%
Sierra Leone Capital:
Freetown
FREETOWN WEATHER
Sierra Leone Reference Articles and Links
Wikipedia: Sierra Leone
History of Sierra Leone
BBC Country Profile: Sierra Leone
US State Department: Sierra Leone Profile
Maps of Sierra Leone
Historic Maps of Africa
1885 Map of Africa
WikiTravel: Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone News Websites
Sierra Express Media
Panapress: Sierra Leone
ABYZ: Sierra Leone News Links
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