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The Establishment of Long-Distance Trade Between Sierra Leone and its Hinterland, 1787–1821

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Winston McGowan
Winston McGowan
Affiliation:
University of Guyana
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Extract

One of the principal objectives of foreign settlements in nineteenth-century West Africa was the establishment of extensive regular trade with Africans, especially residents of the distant, fabled interior. The attainment of this goal, however, proved very difficult. The most spectacular success was achieved by the British settlement at Sierra Leone, which in the early 1820s managed to establish substantial regular trade with the distant hinterland. Its early efforts to achieve this objective, however, were unsuccessful. Until 1818 the development of long-distance trade with the hinterland was impeded by the desultory nature of such efforts, Sierra Leone's opposition to slave trading, competition from established coastal marts, obstructions caused by intermediate states and peoples, and the weaknesses and limitations of the Colony's policy towards commerce and the interior. By 1821, however, the marked decline of the Atlantic slave trade in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, the active co-operation of Futa Jallon and Segu, two major trading states in the hinterland, and certain other important developments in the Colony and the interior, combined to establish such trade on a regular basis.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , March 1990 , pp. 25 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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References

1 It is Sierra Leone's commerce with Solimana, Futa Jallon and the Upper Niger, areas over two hundred miles away in the northern and eastern hinterland, that is the subject of this article. There was little or no direct long-distance trade between Sierra Leone and the distant southern interior in the period under consideration.

It is important to emphasize that the term ‘long-distance trade’ is not used in this essay to cover trade transacted by a relay system in which goods moved from the interior to the coast through successive intermediaries. It is employed to refer only to ‘through trade’, i.e. transactions in which the inland merchants travelled directly to the Colony.

2 The Royal Gazette and Sierra Leone Advertiser, Freetown, 16 Dec. 1820, 10 Nov. 1821, 10 Aug., 30 Nov. 1822, 22 Feb. 1823, referred to hereafter as Gazette.

3 The term ‘Northern Rivers’ was used by the British in Sierra Leone to the south to refer to the Rio Grande, Nunez, Pongas, Dubreka, Mellacourie, Kise-Kise, Great Scarcies, Small Scarcies and other rivers which flowed into the Atlantic Ocean between Portuguese Guinea and Sierra Leone. They were called Rivières du Sud (Southern Rivers) by the French in Senegal to the north. Most of the routes from the interior to the marts in these rivers originated in, or passed through, Futa Jallon. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries no foreign power had as yet obtained any rights of sovereignty over these rivers.

4 Archives of the Church Missionary Society, University of Birmingham (hereafter C.M.S.), CAI/E3/, Nylander to Pratt, 18 Feb. 1813; Renner to Pratt, 20 April 1813; British Parliamentary Papers (P.P), 1819, Vol. XVIIIGoogle Scholar, Answers from Sierra Leone to the Queries of Viscount Castlereagh, April 1817; Letter of Z. Macaulay to Viscount Castlereagh, 20 Dec. 1817.

5 P.P., 1801–2, Vol. II, Report from the Committee on the Petition of the Court of Directors of the Sierra Leone Company, 25 May 1802—Appendix: Statement of the Chairman and Court of Directors of the Sierra Leone Company, respecting the Progress, State, and Prospects of the Colony of Sierra Leone, 7.

6 Public Record Office, London (P.R.O.), C.O. 270/8, Minutes of Council, 17 Sept. 1802.

7 Rhodes House, Oxford, Mss, Afr. S22, ‘Journal of Mr. J. Watt in his Expedition to and from Teembo in the year 1794’, 9–17; Corry, J., Observations upon the Windward Coast of Africa (London, 1807), 59.Google Scholar

8 Whenever the term ‘Fula’ is used in this article, it refers to the Fula of Futa Jallon.

9 Huntington Library, San Moreno, California, U.S.A., Journal of Zachary Macaulay, entries for 30 June, 10, 12, 27 Sept. 1793; Rhodes House, Watt's Journal, 47–8, 59–60, 70–81, 84, 88.

10 Rhodes House, Watt's Journal, 63, 72, 79; P.R.O., CO. 267/53, Grant to Bathurst, 24 Sept. 1821, encl. O'Beirne's Journal, 162.

11 Gazette, 10 Feb. 1821, 25 Feb. 1826.

12 Ibid. 25 Feb. 1826.

13 Ibid. 28 Feb., 8 Sept., 13 Oct. 1821; Fyfe, C., A History of Sierra Leone (London, 1962), 149.Google Scholar

14 P.R.O., CO. 268/5, Governor & Council to Chairman & Court of Directors of Sierra Leone Company, 6 Feb., 7 Oct. 1796, 5 June 1798; Sierra Leone Archives, Freetown (S.L.A.), Gray's Letter Book, Gray to Chairman and Court of Directors, 5, 10 June, 10, 27 July 1799.

15 P.R.O., CO. 267/24, Observations Respecting the relations of the Colony with the neighbouring countries, 1 May 1808.

16 Gazette, 10 Feb., 7 Dec. 1822; Laing, A., Travels in Timanee, Kooranko and Soolima Countries in West Africa (London, 1825), 74, 99, 101.Google Scholar

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18 Gazette, 6 Jan., 10, 24 Feb. 1821; Laing, Travels, 88–9.

19 Rhodes House, Watt's Journal, 35, 39, 63, 88–9, 93, 101–2, 107–110, 116–120; C.M.S., CAI/EI/, Hartwig to Pratt, 10 May 1806.

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22 Gazette, 10 Sept. 1821.

23 P.R.O., C.O. 267/38, Maxwell to Bathurst, 1 May 1814 and enclosures.

24 Gazette, 3 Feb. 1821, 14 Sept. 1822.

25 C.M.S., CAI/EI/II6c/, Rev. P. Hartwig's Journal, entry for 19 April 1806; Gazette, 10 Aug. 1822.

26 Rhodes House, Watt's Journal, 122–3; P.R.O., CO. 267/53, Grant to Bathurst, 24 Sept. 1821, encl. O'Beirne's Journal, 44, 48, 103; Gazette, 24 Feb. 1821.

27 C.M.S., CAI/EI/, Hartwig to Ludlam, 2 May, 21 Aug. 1806; Royal Society, London, England, Laing Papers, Vol. 3, entry for 7 Sept. 1822; Gazette, 2, 9 Nov. 1822.

28 Royal Society, Laing Papers, Vol. 3, entries for 9, 17 Sept. 1822; Gazette, 3 Feb. 1821, 2 Nov. 1822; Laing, Travels, 355, 372.

29 Rhodes House, Watt's Journal, 35, 97–104, 116–120; P.R.O., C.O. 2/1, Macaulay to Sullivan, 4 Sept. 1802; C.O. 267/24, Observations Respecting the Relations of the Colony with the neighbouring Countries, 1 May 1808.

30 P.R.O., C.O. 267/82, Campbell to Goderich, 28 July 1827 and enclosures; Gazette, 28 Oct., 11 Nov. 1820, 22 Feb. 1823; Fyfe, History, 159.

31 P.R.O., C.O. 270/8, Minutes of Council, 17 Mar., 17 Sept. 1802; C.O. 267/24, Thompson to Castlereagh, 2 Nov. 1808.

32 P.R.O., C.O. 268/8, Letters from the Imam of Foota Jaloo and the negro Chiefs in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, no date [Jan. 1810]; C.O. 267/29, Observations on the Situation of Sierra Leone with respect to the surrounding Nations, 1 Nov. 1811; Gazette, 11 Nov. 1820, 3, 10 Feb., 21 April, 13 Oct. 1821.

33 P.R.O., C.O. 270/2, Minutes of Council, 6 Jan., 3, 17 Feb., 25 April, 5 May 1794; Rhodes House, Watt's Journal.

34 P.R.O., C.O. 270/2, Minutes of Council, 5 May 1794; C.O. 270/3, Minutes of Council, 3 April 1795; C.O. 268/5, Governor & Council to Chairman & Court of Directors of Sierra Leone Company, 3 June 1795.

35 P.R.O., C.O. 268/5, Macaulay and Watt to Cooper, 8 April 1795.

36 P.R.O., C.O. 2/5, His Excellency Charles MacCarthy…to the high and mighty King of the Foulah Nation, no date [March 1816]; Memorandum for Major Peddie from Captain Campbell, 23 May 1816; Gazette, 3 Feb. 1821.

37 P.P., 1812, X, Report of the Commissioners appointed for investigating the State of the Settlements and Governments on the Coast of Africa; Pearsall, A. W., ‘Sierra Leone and the Suppression of the slave trade’, Sierra Leone Studies, new series, No. 12, 12. 1959.Google Scholar

38 P.R.O., C.O. 2/5, Campbell's Journal, 1817, Book 2, 155–6; Gazette, 23 Nov. 1822; Drake, R., Revelations of a Slave Smuggler: being an Autobiography of Capt. Richard Drake, an African Trader for Fifty Years–from 1807 to 1857 (New York, 1860)Google Scholar, printed in Dow, G. F., Slave Ships and Slaving (Salem, 1927), 212–32.Google Scholar

39 P.R.O., C.O. 267/66, Turner to Bathurst, 20 Dec. 1825; C.O. 267/73, Campbell to Bathurst, 17 Sept. 1826; CO. 267/110, Findlay to Hay, 10 Nov. 1831; Gazette, 3, 17 Dec. 1825; Fyfe, History, 157, 159, 185.

40 Royal Society, Laing Papers, Vol. 3, Remarks relating to the Interior of Africa; Gazette, 27 Oct. 1821, 23 Feb. 1822.

41 P.R.O., C.O. 267/53, Grant to Bathurst, 24 Sept. 1821, encl. O'Beirne's Journal, 28–9, 32–4, 40.

42 Gazette, 24 Feb. 1821.

43 P.R.O., C.O. 270/8, Minutes of Council, 17 March 1802.

44 P.R.O., W.O. 1/352, Queries proposed by Commodore Hallowel with the Governor and Council's answers, 12 Jan. 1803; C.M.S., CAI/EI/, Rev. L. Butscher's Journal, entry for 19 March 1807. The ironic dependence of Sierra Leone on the goodwill of slave traders is an aspect of its history often overlooked by historians.

45 P.R.O., C.O. 267/38, Maxwell to Bathurst, 1 May 1814, encl. Amurah and Solyman to Maxwell, 2 March 1814; Gazette, 11 Nov. 1820.

46 S.L.A., Governor's Letter Book (G.L.B.), 1808–11, Ludlam to Mauri Bramah Concurri, 9 April 1808.

47 P.R.O., C.O. 267/24, Observations Respecting the Relations of the Colony with the neighbouring Countries, 1 May 1808.

48 Ibid.; C.O. 2/5, Memorandum for Major Peddie from Captain Campbell, 23 May 1816; C.O. 267/49, MacCarthy to Bathurst, 18 Nov. 1819.

49 Gazette, 9 Dec. 1820.

50 Ibid., 11 Nov. 1820, 12 Mar. 1825; P.R.O., C.O. 267/91, Report of the Commissioners of Enquiry into the State of the Colony of Sierra Leone, 1827, Appendix A, No. 28, Sierra Leone Custom House Return of Exports from 1816 to 1824 inclusive.

51 P.R.O., F.O. 84/28, H.M's Commissioners at Sierra Leone to Canning, 15 May 1824; Peterson, J., Province of Freedom: A History of Sierra Leone 1787–1870 (London, 1969). 43, 270.Google Scholar

52 P.P. 1842, Vol. XI, Report from the Select Committee on the West Coast of Africa, Part I, 175, 731; Part II, 339: Fyfe, History, 152, 157.

53 Gazette, 9 Dec. 1820, 6 Jan. 1821.

54 P.R.O., C.O. 267/91, Report of the Commissioners of Enquiry into the State of the Colony of Sierra Leone, 1827, First Part, 18–19; Fyfe, History, 149.

55 Gazette, 3 Mar., 16 June 1821, 7 Dec. 1822; Laing Travels, 69–72.

56 Gazette, 9 Dec. 1820.

57 P.R.O., C.O. 267/53, Grant to Bathurst, 24 Sept. 1821, encl. O'Beirne's Journal, 140.

58 P.R.O., CO. 267/53, Grant to O'Beirne, 24 Sept. 1821, encl. O'Beirne's Journal, 139–40; Gazette, 23 Nov. 1822.

59 Gazette, 6 Jan., 3, 10 Feb., 3 Mar., 14 April, 5 May, 18 Nov. 1821.

60 Ibid., 14 April, 10 Nov. 1821, 5 Jan. 1822; P.R.O., CO. 2/5, Memorandum in answer to Major Peddie's Queries, 9 Dec. 1815, Tauxier, L., Histoire des Bambara (Paris, 1942), 102–4Google Scholar; Ba, A. and Daget, J., L'Empire Peul du Macina, I: 1818–1853 (Paris, 1962), 32–40, 129–49.Google Scholar

61 Gazette, 9, 30 Dec. 1820.

62 P.R.O., C.O. 267/53, Grant to Bathurst, 24 Sept. 1821; Gazette, 21, 28 April, 5, 12 May, 16 June, 14 July, 1821.

63 P.R.O., C.O. 267/53, Grant to Bathurst, 24 Sept. 1821; Gazette, 21, 28 April, 5, 12 May, 16 June, 14 July, 1821.