OUR HISTORY

Sierra Leone derived her name back in 1462 when a Portuguese explorer: Pedro da Cintra sailing down the coast of West Africa under thunderstorms was convinced that the roar coming from the mountainous peninsula was from lions so he named the area: “SIERRA LYOA“ meaning Lion Mountains. Sixteenth century English sailors called it: “SIERRA LEOA” which continued in the 17th century to     SIERRA LEONE; the British officially adopted the name:  SIERRA LEONE in 1787.

Sierra Leone, a country on the West coast of Africa, north of the equator. She has an important history as one of the locations of the transatlantic slave trade which had one of the points of parting for thousands of West African captives.  With a land area of 27,699 square miles (71,740 square kilometers), it is slightly smaller than the state of South Carolina. Sierra Leone is bounded by Guinea to the north and northeast, Liberia to the south and southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. A population of about 6.1 million.

The Capital City – Freetown

(The Birth of our Capital)

The Black Poor:

In 1787, British philanthropists founded the “Province of Freedom” which became known as: Freetown – A home for repatriated former slaves, this became a British crown colony and the principal base for the release of these freed slaves. At the same time English philanthropists, in handling the welfare of the growing population of unemployed blacks on the streets of London, forged a "benevolent" movement to round them all up and take them back to Africa to settle, where they could begin life anew thus Freetown became their new home.

The Nova Scotians:

By 1792 Black loyalists from Nova Scotia such as: Thomas Peters, along with David George, Cato Perkins and Joseph Leonard were influential in recruiting other African settlers from Nova Scotia for the colonization of Sierra Leone. These had been ex-slaves from America who had fought for the British during the Revolutionary War, the English loss had forced them to move to Canada where they were not entirely welcome.

The Maroons of Jamaica:

The Jamaica Maroons were a group who had serious hostile relations with British occupancy and this caused economic, social and political tensions. This disagreement caused the maroons to be transported off the island of Nova Scotia, and later went to Sierra Leone, West Africa.

 The Liberated Africans:

 Between 1808 and 1864 after Great Britain outlawed the slave trade, the British navy policed the West African coast for trading ships and would intercept them and released approximately 50,000 in Freetown as liberated slaves.

In 1808 Sierra Leone became a British crown colony, ruled under a colonial governor. Protestant missionaries were active there and in 1827 they founded the 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 or Krios, 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 W Africa, especially among the Yoruba of present-day SW Nigeria.