The Sierra Leone Company was the corporate body involved in founding the second Black British colony in Africa in 1792 through the resettlement of Nova Scotian ex-slaves who had initially been settled in Nova Scotia after the American Revolutionary War. The company came about because of the work of the ardent abolitionist, Granville Sharp and Henry Thornton, who is considered one of the founding fathers of Sierra Leone.
Initial attempts to gain a royal charter for the company proved fruitless following opposition from the attorney general, Archibald Macdonald. The company then proceeded to gain incorporation through act of parliament. However this too received opposition, particularly from the Committee of the Company of Merchants Trading to Africa, who called a meeting in March 1791. This led to three petitions being organised by slave trade merchants in London, Liverpool and Bristol. Slave traders in Lancaster also organised a petition as did the African Company. Further opposition was organised by the Standing Committee of West India Planters and Merchants, who arranged for two meetings with William Pitt, the Prime Minister. Nevertheless, Henry Thornton was able to successfully guide the Sierra Leone settlement bill through parliament, despite the efforts of the Liverpool MP Bamber Gascoyne and other anti-abolitionists. On 30th May 1791, the bill was passed 87 votes to 9.
The Sierra Leone Company was the successor to the St George's Bay Company which had made a mostly unsuccessful attempt in 1787 to establish a free settlement for the "Black Poor" of London, who were mainly British Loyalists who had fought against the Americans in the American War of Independence.
Both ventures were promoted by the anti-slavery activist Granville Sharp, who published a prospectus for the proposed company in 1790 entitled Free English Territory in AFRICA . The prospectus made clear its abolitionist view and stated that several respectable gentlemen who had already subscribed had done so "not with a view of any present profit to themselves, but merely, through benevolence and public spirit, to promote a charitable measure, which may hereafter prove of great national importance to the Manufactories, and other Trading Interests of this Kingdom".
Amongst the early subscribers are many friends of Sharp involved in the Clapham Sect: Henry Thornton, William Wilberforce, Rev. Thomas Clarkson, Rev. Thomas Gisbourne, Samuel Whitbread
References
- ^ Braidwood, p231
- ^ Braidwood, p235
- ^ Braidwood, p248
- Black poor and White Philanthropists:
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