Biographical Note
Sierra Leone - so named by Portuguese voyagers ("Serra Lyoa") around the 15th century - was long a hub of international trade and commerce. Under the protection of local African leaders, European traders traveled to the port of present-day Freetown to exchange manufactured goods for ivory and slaves. In 1787, a group of freed slaves from Britain arrived on the shores of Sierra Leone to establish a permanent settlement, where they were soon joined by freedmen and women from America and Jamaica. In 1807, the British Parliament abolished the trading of slaves; in 1808, the British government took control of the settlement and turned it into an anti-slave trade naval base and a center to which slaves could be brought, freed, and re-settled.
From 1807 to 1864, the British navy brought more than 50,000 "recaptives" (freed former slaves) to Sierra Leone, where the British government began trying to create a homogenous Christian community out of a population which lacked unifying features; there wasn't yet a common language, nationality, or religion. Conversion efforts, on the part of Protestant missionaries and black pastors, were extremely successful. In this new society, formerly enslaved people and their descendants (called "Creoles" or "Krios") formed a social elite that enjoyed greater access to political, educational, and economic opportunities than did indigenous Africans, including the ability to rise to senior official posts in the colonial government.
In the 1800s, the colony and other neighboring populations on the coast became increasingly economically intertwined with the British, trading timber, palm and peanut produce, and vegetable oils for imported wares. During the period of European partition of Africa, the British established a protectorate over the new territory negotiated with France and Liberia, including the existing Sierra Leone colony. This new British-controlled region was governed by British administrators who gradually removed Creole officers and imposed new taxes, including a "hut-tax" on the ruling chiefs who subsequently revolted - unsuccessfully - in 1898. After World War II, Sierra Leone joined the other British colonies demanding their independence. The new Sierra Leone government developed parliamentary institutions throughout the 1950s, before becoming an independent state in the British Commonwealth in 1961, and finally a republic in 1971.
Many maps in this collection display the abundant natural resources found in Sierra Leone. The nation's economy has long been dominated by agriculture and mineral resources. Over three-fifths of Sierra Leone's population works in the agriculture sector, primarily producing rice. Sierra Leone holds some of the world's largest reserves of rutile, as well as significant reserves of diamonds and chromite. Large private companies and smaller private prospectors have historically mined diamonds in Sierra Leone; in general, mining is responsible for a significant proportion of Sierra Leone's workforce.
Sources
Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. "Sierra Leone." Accessed June 6, 2024, https://www.britannica.com/place/Sierra-Leone.