| Sierra Leone History |
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Page 1 of 2 Early HistoryThe Temne were living along the northern coast of present-day Sierra Leone when the first Portuguese navigators reached the region in 1460. The Portuguese landed on the Sierra Leone Peninsula, looking at the mountains surrounding the land they named it Serra Lyoa meaning [Lion Mountains] because they said the mountains looks like lions. Beginning c.1500, European traders stopped regularly on the peninsula, exchanging cloth and metal goods for ivory, timber, and small numbers of slaves. Early in the middle of the 16th century, Mande-speaking people migrated into Sierra Leone from present-day Liberia, and they eventually established the chiefdoms of Bullom, Loko, Boure, and Sherbro. Early in the 17th century, British traders became increasingly active along the coast of Sierra Leone. Early In the 18th century, the Fulani and Mande-speaking persons from the Fouta Djallon region of present-day Guinea converted numerous Temne of Northern Sierra Leone to followers of the Islamic religion. Sierra Leone was a minor source of slaves for the transatlantic slave trade during the 17th and 18th century. Following the American Revolutionary War (1775–83) attempts were made to resettle freed slaves in Africa. In 1787, 400 persons (including 330 blacks and 70 white prostitutes) arrived at the Sierra Leone Peninsula, bought land from local Temne leaders, and established the Province of Freedom near present-day Freetown. The settlement did not fare well, and most of the inhabitants died of diseases in the first year. A renewed attempt of settlement was made in 1792, when about 1,100 freed slaves under the leadership of the abolitionist Thomas Clarkson landed on the peninsula and founded Freetown. They were joined by about 500 free blacks from Jamaica in 1800. The new colony was controlled by the Sierra Leone Company, which forcefully held off the Temne while the settlers supported themselves by farming. In 1807, Great Britain outlawed the slave trade, and in early 1808 the British government took over Freetown from the financially troubled company, using it as a naval base for antislavery patrols. Between 1808 and 1864 approximately 50,000 liberated slaves settled at Freetown. Protestant missionaries were active there, and in 1827 they founded Fourah Bay College (now part of the University of Sierra Leone), where Africans were educated. Most of the freedmen and their descendants, known as Creoles, were Christians. They became active as Missionaries, Traders, and Civil Servants along the Sierra Leone coast and on Sherbro Island as well as in other regions of coastal West Africa, especially among the Yoruba of present-day SW Nigeria.
The Colonial EraDuring the periods 1821 to 1827, 1843 to 1850, and 1866 to 1874, British holdings on the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana) were placed under the governor of Sierra Leone. In 1863 an advisory legislative council was established in Sierra Leone. The British were reluctant to assume added responsibility by increasing the size of the colony, but in 1896 the interior was proclaimed a British protectorate, mainly in order to forestall French ambitions in the region, and the Colony and Protectorate of Sierra Leone was established. The protectorate was ruled “indirectly” (i.e., through the rulers of the numerous small states, rather than by creating an entirely new administrative structure) and a Hut Tax was imposed in 1898 to pay for administrative costs. The Africans protested the tax in a war (1898) led in the north by Bai Bureh and in the south by the Poro secret society; the British quickly emerged victorious and there were no further major armed protests. Under the British, little economic development was undertaken in the protectorate until the 1950s, although a railroad was built and the production for export of palm products and peanuts was encouraged. After World War II, Africans were given more political responsibility, and educational opportunities were enlarged. In the economic sphere, mining (especially of diamonds and iron ore) increased greatly. The Creoles of the colony, who had been largely excluded from higher government posts in favor of the British, sought a larger voice in the affairs of Sierra Leone. A constitution adopted in 1951 gave additional power to Africans. However, the Creoles were a small minority in the combined colony and protectorate, and in the elections of 1951 the protectorate-based Sierra Leone Peoples party (SLPP), led by Dr. Milton Margai(a Mende), emerged victorious.
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