Editing Freetown (section)

=== Freetown settlement and the Colony of Sierra Leone (1792–1808) ===

In 1791, [[Thomas Peters (revolutionary)|Thomas Peters]], an African American who had served in the [[Black Pioneers]], went to England to report the grievances of the black population in [[Nova Scotia]]. Some of these African Americans were ex-slaves who had escaped to the British forces who had been given their freedom and resettled there by the Crown after the [[American Revolution]]. Land grants and assistance in starting the settlements had been intermittent and slow.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

During his visit, Peters met with the directors of the [[Sierra Leone Company]] and learned of proposals for a new settlement at Sierra Leone. Despite the collapse of the 1787 colony, the directors were eager to recruit settlers to Sierra Leone. [[Lieutenant John Clarkson, RN]], who was an abolitionist, was sent to Nova Scotia in [[British North America]] to register immigrants to take to Sierra Leone for a new settlement.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

Tired of the harsh weather and racial discrimination in Nova Scotia, more than 1,100 former American slaves chose to go to Sierra Leone.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}} They sailed in 15 ships and arrived in St. George Bay between February 26 – March 9, 1792.<ref>Britannica, [https://www.britannica.com/place/Freetown Freetown], britannica.com, USA, accessed on June 24, 2019</ref> Sixty-four settlers died en route to Sierra Leone, and Lieutenant Clarkson was among those taken ill during the voyage. Upon reaching Sierra Leone, Clarkson and some of the Nova Scotian 'captains' "dispatched on shore to clear or make roadway for their landing". The Nova Scotians were to build Freetown on the former site of the first Granville Town, where jungle had taken over since its destruction in 1789. Its surviving Old Settlers had relocated to Fourah Bay in 1791.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

At Freetown, the women remained in the ships while the men worked to clear the land. Lt. Clarkson told the men to clear the land until they reached a large cotton tree. After the work had been done and the land cleared, all the Nova Scotians, men and women, disembarked and marched towards the thick forest and to the cotton tree, and their preachers (all African Americans) began singing "Awake and Sing of Moses and the Lamb."{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

In March 1792, Nathaniel Gilbert, a white preacher, prayed and preached a sermon under the large [[Cotton Tree (Sierra Leone)|Cotton Tree]], and Reverend [[David George (Baptist)|David George]], from South Carolina, preached the first recorded [[Baptist]] service in Africa. The land was dedicated and christened 'Free Town,' as ordered by the Sierra Leone Company Directors. This was the first thanksgiving service.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

John Clarkson was sworn in as first governor of Sierra Leone.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Institution |first=Smithsonian |title=Governor John Clarkson's diary and the origins of Sierra Leone {{!}} Smithsonian Institution |url=https://www.si.edu/object/siris_sil_788517 |access-date=2025-02-09 |website=Smithsonian Institution |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kup |first=A. P. |date=1972 |title=John Clarkson and the Sierra Leone Company |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/217514?origin=crossref |journal=The International Journal of African Historical Studies |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=203–220 |doi=10.2307/217514 |issn=0361-7882}}</ref> Small huts were erected before the rainy season. The Sierra Leone Company surveyors and the settlers built Freetown on the American grid pattern, with parallel streets and wide roads, with the largest being Water Street. On August 24, 1792, the Black Poor or Old Settlers of the second Granville Town were incorporated into the new Sierra Leone Colony, but remained at Granville Town.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

In 1793, the settlers sent a petition to the Sierra Leone Company expressing concerns about the treatment that they were enduring.<ref>Settlers' Petition, # 19, page. 35, Our Children Free and Happy</ref> The settlers in particular objected to being issued currency that was only redeemable at a company owned store. They also claimed that the governor, a Mr. Dawes, ruled in an almost tyrannical fashion, favoring certain people over others when ruling the settlement. The writers then argued that they had not received the amount of land that Lt. Clarkson had promised them on leaving Nova Scotia. The letter expressed anxiety that the company was not treating them as freemen, but as slaves and requested that Lt. Clarkson return as governor.

Freetown survived being pillaged by the French in 1794, and was rebuilt by the settlers. By 1798, Freetown had between 300 and 400 houses with architecture resembling that of the United States – stone foundations with wooden superstructures. Eventually this style of housing, built by the Nova Scotians, would be the model for the 'bod oses' of their [[Sierra Leone Creole people|Creole]] descendants.

In 1800, the Nova Scotians rebelled. The colonial authorities used the arrival of about 550 [[Jamaican Maroons]] to suppress the insurrection. Thirty-four Nova Scotians were banished and sent to either the [[Sherbro Island|Sherbro]] or a penal colony at Gore. Some of the Nova Scotians were eventually allowed back into Freetown. After the Maroons captured the Nova Scotian rebels, they were granted their land. Eventually the Maroons had their own district, which came to be known as [[Maroon Town, Sierra Leone|Maroon Town]].