Recent decades have seen a growing interest in the history of black people in Britain.¹ One of the most controversial episodes in black British history, and one which raises several important questions, was the Sierra Leone expedition of 1786-1787. The establishment of a settlement in West Africa in the late eighteenth century by a group of black people from London was in itself an extraordinary occurrence. Who were these black people and how had they come to Britain? How were they regarded by the native white population? And why was it that some of them left Britain in an attempt...

In April 1787 a small fleet of ships left England on an expedition whose aim was to form a settlement in West Africa. The ships carried mainly black settlers, but the expedition had been organized by a small group of white philanthropists, with the backing of the British Government. White interest in a West African settlement was the product of a number of historical factors. Some went back to a period long before 1787 and all testify to the varying attitudes to Africa that were held in late eighteenth century Britain.

The main contact between Britain and Black Africa in...

In early 1786, public concern about the plight of the lascars in London at last crystallized into a plan for practical relief. On 5 January,The Public Advertiserrecommended its readers ‘to consider their [the lascars’] hard Fate, and to provide for their Relief, and went on to report that:

A Gentleman, commiserating these unhappy People has made a Beginning to this Charitable Work by authorising Mr. Brown, Baker, in Wigmore Street, Cavendish-square, to give a Quartern Loaf to every Black in Distress, who will apply on Saturday next between the Hours of Twelve and Two. Subscriptions for this Purpose...

It had been known since the sixteenth century that the best time to trade in West Africa was in the months between December and March.¹ Mortality caused by the ‘fevers’ of the West African coast (above all, malaria) was always highest during the rainy season, which begins in Sierra Leone in May and may last into November.² If the new settlement was to have a chance of establishing itself before the onset of rain and disease it was therefore essential that the expedition should leave in the autumn. This consideration may well have governed the Committee’s original, highly optimistic choice...

On the voyage, there were at first promising signs that the expedition's troubles had been left behind. Both Thompson and Fraser reported a far greater degree of harmony on board the ships. The only cloud was cast by the persistence of the fever, which claimed 14 lives.¹ Tenerife was reached in less than a fortnight, and Thompson took the opportunity of buying a bullock for each ship, so that the passengers might have fresh meat as a change from salt provisions. (He sent the bill to the Treasury, who agreed to pay it).² On 10 May, a month and a...

Although the Province of Freedom had perished, there were, as we have seen, some survivors. Sharp did not hear of the destruction until April 1790, over four months after the event. He immediately thought of organizing a relief expedition, to help the survivors and keep them together, and once again turned to the government for help. The response was at first sympathetic: Sharp obtained an interview with Pitt and was directed to send him information on the best way of giving relief. He accordingly wrote to suggest that the newly-purchased ‘Lapwing’ could be used, provided that the government would give...

The present study has first of all enabled us to give satisfactory answers to the questions raised in the introduction. Sources such as parish registers and the records of the Commission for American Claims yield considerable information about London’s black population in the late eighteenth century. Some blacks had come to England in the course of their working life, individually as seamen or as servants. But the great majority of those who became involved in the Sierra Leone expedition were transferred ‘loyalists’ from America or the West Indies, that is, persons who had been caught up in the American war,...