Editing Freetown (section)

=== Province of Freedom (1787–1789) ===
The area was first settled in 1787 by 400 formerly [[Slavery|enslaved]] black people sent from London, England, under the auspices of the [[Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor]], an organisation set up by Jonah Hanway and the British abolitionist [[Granville Sharp]].<ref>Roman Adrian Cybriwsky, ''Capital Cities around the World: An Encyclopedia of Geography, History, and Culture'', ABC-CLIO, USA, 2013, p. 109</ref> These black people were African Americans, Afro-Caribbeans, Africans, Southeast Asians, and black people born in Great Britain. They established the 'Province of Freedom' and the settlement of Granville Town on land purchased from local [[Koya Temne]] subchief King Tom and regent Naimbana.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Trillo |first1=Richard |title=West Africa: The Rough Guide |last2=Hudgens |first2=Jim |date=November 1995 |publisher=The Rough Guides |isbn=978-1-85828-101-8 |edition=2nd |series=Rough Guides |location=London |pages=545–549}}</ref> The British understood the purchase meant that their new settlers had the land "for ever." Although the established arrangement between Europeans and the Koya Temne included provisions for permanent settlement, some historians question how well the Koya leaders understood the agreement, as they had a different conception of the uses of property.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

Disputes soon broke out. King Tom's successor, King Jimmy, burnt the settlement to the ground in 1789. [[Alexander Falconbridge]] was sent to Sierra Leone in 1791 to collect the remaining Black Poor settlers, and they re-established Granville Town around the area now known as [[Cline Town|Cline Town, Sierra Leone]] near [[Fourah Bay]]. These 1787 settlers did not formally establish Freetown, even though the bicentennial of Freetown was celebrated in 1987; formally, Freetown was founded in 1792.<ref>Shaw, Rosalind, ''Memories of the Slave Trade: Ritual and the Historical Imagination in Sierra Leone.'' Reconstructed <!--?Explain--> by Mohamed Sheriff, Memphis, Tennessee, [[University of Chicago Press]] (2002), p.&nbsp;37.</ref>