BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY: SLAVE TRADE IN SIERRA LEONE :

The Portuguese had carried out limited slavery and the process accelerated with the arrival of the British in the late 1600's. They needed a large number of slaves to work on the plantations in there colonies in America and the Caribbean. The rise in the importance of slavery can be seen in the establishment of the Bunce Island slave castle located 20miles up river from Freetown, the castle was established by the British in 1670. It acted as a processing center for captured slaves from the interior. They were brought to the castle and kept in appalling conditions, shackled and branded then shipped across the Atlantic. Many did not make it onto the boats they died on the Island due to disease, starvation and violence  British side in the Americanat the hands of the slave traders.

Tens of thousands passed through the castle until it was shut down following the abolition of the slave trade by the British Parliament in 1807. Freetown was established in 1792 as a home for freed slaves who had fought on the American War of Independence. The British then annexed the country to make it a Crown Colony in 1808.