Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate

The Colony and Protectorate of Sierra Leone was the British colonial administration in Sierra Leone from 1808 to 1961. Its origins lay in the late eighteenth century, when British humanitarians resettled freed slaves and Black Loyalists on the coast near the Temne kingdom. Granville Town was founded in 1787, and Freetown was established in 1792 by Nova Scotian settlers, followed in 1800 by Jamaican Maroons. The British abolition of the slave trade in 1807 turned the settlement into a base for the Royal Navy's anti-slavery patrols, and in 1808 the crown took over the colony. The colony proper comprised Freetown and its immediate surroundings; the interior remained under African rulers until 1896, when Britain declared a protectorate over the hinterland and demarcated its borders with French Guinea and Liberia. The two parts were governed together but under different legal regimes, and the Creole descendants of the settlers formed a distinct educated elite in Freetown. Freetown also served as the capital of British West Africa during the periods when that umbrella administration existed. In the twentieth century the colony's economy depended on palm produce, iron ore and diamonds, while the protectorate was administered through chiefs under a system of indirect rule. After the Second World War, elections and constitutional negotiations led by Sir Milton Margai prepared the transfer of power, and Sierra Leone became independent on 27 April 1961, initially as a dominion with Elizabeth II as head of state.