Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. Sixteen ethnic groups inhabit Sierra Leone, the two largest and most influential being the Temne and Mende peoples. About 2% of the country’s population are Krio, descendants of freed African American and West Indian slaves.
European contacts within Sierra Leone were among the first in West Africa in the 15th century. In 1462, Portuguese explorer Pedro de Sintra mapped the hills surrounding what is now Freetown Harbour, naming the shaped formation Serra da Leoa or “Serra Leoa” (Portuguese for Lioness Mountains). The Spanish rendering of this geographic formation is Sierra Leona, which later was adapted and, misspelled, became the country’s current name.
Portuguese traders arrived at the harbour and by 1495 they had built a fortified trading post on the coast. The Dutch and French also set up trade here, and each nation used Sierra Leone as a trading point for slaves brought by African traders from interior areas undergoing wars and conflicts over territory.
In 1787 the British Crown founded a settlement in Sierra Leone in what was called the “Province of Freedom”. It intended to resettle some of the “Black Poor of London”, some of whom were African-Americans freed by the British during the war. After they established Granville Town, most of the first group of colonists died, owing to disease and warfare with the indigenous African peoples (Temne), who resisted their encroachment.
Following the American Revolution, more than 3,000 Black Loyalists had also been settled in Nova Scotia, where they were finally granted land. They founded Birchtown, Nova Scotia, but faced harsh winters and racial discrimination from nearby Shelburne, Nova Scotia. Thomas Peters pressed British authorities for relief and more aid; together with British abolitionist John Clarkson, the Sierra Leone Company was established to relocate Black Loyalists who wanted to take their chances in West Africa. In 1792 nearly 1200 persons from Nova Scotia crossed the Atlantic to build the second (and only permanent) Colony of Sierra Leone and the settlement of Freetown on 11 March 1792. .
The initial process of society-building in Freetown, however, was a harsh struggle. The Crown did not supply enough basic supplies and provisions, and the Settlers were continually threatened by illegal slave trading and the risk of re-enslavement. In the 1790s, the Settlers, including adult women, voted for the first time in elections. The Sierra Leone Company, controlled by London investors, refused to allow the settlers to take freehold of the land. In 1799 some of the settlers revolted. On 1 January 1808, Thomas Ludlam, the Governor of the Sierra Leone Company and a leading abolitionist, surrendered the Company’s charter.
At about the same time (following the abolition of the slave trade in 1807), British crews delivered thousands of formerly enslaved Africans to Freetown, after liberating them from illegal slave ships. These returned Africans were from many areas of Africa, but principally the west coast. Domestic slavery, which continued to be practised by local African elites, was abolished in 1928.
In the early 19th century, Freetown served as the residence of the British colonial governor of the region, who also administered the Gold Coast and the Gambia settlements. Sierra Leone developed as the educational centre of British West Africa.
In 1924, the UK government divided Sierra Leone into a Colony and a Protectorate, with different political systems constitutionally defined for each. The Colony was Freetown and its coastal area; the Protectorate was defined as the hinterland areas dominated by local chiefs. Antagonism between the two entities escalated to a heated debate in 1947, when proposals were introduced to provide for a single political system for both the Colony and the Protectorate. Most of the proposals came from leaders of the Protectorate, whose population far outnumbered that in the colony.
Sierra Leone achieved independence from the United Kingdom on 27 April 1961, led by Milton Margai who became the country’s first Prime Minister. Sierra Leone held its first general election as an independent nation on May 27, 1962. Siaka Stevens ruled the country from 1968 to 1985 and on 19 April 1971, Stevens’ government abolished Sierra Leone’s parliamentary system and declared Sierra Leone a presidential republic. Major political upheaval continued until 1998 and since then has has an uninterrupted democratic government.
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Thank you for a very well documented story about the country but nothing about the country’s postal history.
Hi! Thanks for your comment. My website is here to provide a brief background about the country and facilitate links to online resources for those seeking more information about the country’s stamps & postal history. Postal history is so vast and technical, it would impossible for me to cover every country’s history (even as an overview). As a member of a Study Circle, I highly recommend joining one. These organisations have members that contain both experts and experienced philatelists.