The Lumley beach in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone
In 1717, the Spanish king gave the Asiento slave import
license to British traders in London, Liverpool, and Manchester, and in 1787,
the Portuguese-occupied slave center of Sierra Leone in West Africa was
taken over by the British.
The St.
George's Bay Company, London, tried to hunt slaves in the region with
dark-skinned British soldiers and slaves born in the USA and the Caribbean
rather than Iancados. However, the resistance put up by the natives and the
diseases brought in but not controlled by the British troops soon wiped out
this group of slave hunters.
In 1792, another 1,200 slaves were transported from the USA and Canada to Sierra Leone. They were supposed to settle in Freetown, the capital, in freedom. However, unlike the Europeans, they were forbidden to own land. In 1799, when they rebelled against the dictum, they were forced to submit to British maroons from Jamaica.
With the British Slave Trade Act of 1807 and the American equivalent of 1808, the British and US governments announced that they would be abolishing the slave trade, and the transport of slaves would be classed as piracy; transporting and trading slaves would therefore be punishable by death.
However, slavery remained legal in both countries. The countries participating in the Congress of Vienna in 1815 joined in the declarations made by both nations, yet the USA and Britain were still active as slave transporters.
On February 19, 1810, Britain and Portugal concluded an alliance in which both countries agreed not to interfere with each other's activities in abducting persons from defined areas of Africa and transporting them across the Atlantic.
While around 30,000 people were transported from Africa to America every year between 1500 and 1807, a total of nine million, 50,000 were sold in America every year until 1870, a total of three million.
In 1815, Britain established the West Coast of Africa Station, with 25 warships, 2,000 officers and crew, and 1,000 Kroomen, ostensibly to suppress the slave trade. However, they controlled neither French, US, Portuguese, Brazilian, nor Spanish ships; the 150,000 Africans they took from 1,600 ships must have been victims abducted by the British themselves.
It also became obvious that the British had sufficient control of the biological weapons used to abduct the slaves. On average, the plague-infested swamps caused five and a half times as many premature deaths among the crew as other deployments of British warships.
This inability to handle biological weapons was also noted when transporting slaves on board private traders. It was the European sailors who suffered the highest death tolls on board the slave ships; during the 18th century, the mortality rate on French transporters averaged 15%, and on British ships, it was often 25%.
The time spent at anchor off the African coast was particularly dangerous; around 1770, several slave ships from Liverpool lost about 45% of their crews in this way.
In Sierra Leone, slavery was legal until 1928. In 1924, 219,275 abducted people were held as slaves. 120,000 people were murdered in the country between 1991 and 2000, and in South Sudan, two million were murdered between 1990 and 2010.
Culled from the book, 'The Jubilee Murders, Originators and Methods of Mass Murders,' by Dr. Wolff Geisler, one of the medical writers on our authentic health blog, "Secrets of HIV-AIDS and Ebola Facts Journal."
Book available at https://wolff-geisler.de/en/product/the-jubilee-murders/
Then, out of nowhere, in the year 2014, Ebola, a hemorrhagic fever virus which had already appeared in Marburg and Frankfurt, in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1967, then first in Congo in 1976, appeared in West Africa to strike Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia.
An Article About My Life In Freetown, Sierra Leone
After visiting the Ivory Coast, Gambia, and Guinea, I made several trips to Nigeria, through the Republic of Togo and Benin.
I flew from
Lagos to Freetown, Sierra Leone, in 1985. From the Lungi International
Airport, I joined the ferry and landed in the capital, Freetown, in total darkness (no electricity), without any idea that Sierra Leone would
be my second home to live and work for a living.
The Republic
of Sierra Leone is a country in West Africa, sharing its borders with Guinea to
the northeast, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the
southwest.
As described by the 'Nations Encyclopedia,' Sierra Leone is composed of about
20 native ethnic groups, constituting 90% of the total population. The two
largest tribes are the Mende (about 30%) and the Temne (about 30%). Thirty percent
of other tribes include the Bullom, Fulani, Gola, Kissi, Kono, Koranko, Krim,
Kru, Limba, Loko, Malinke, Sherbro, Susu, Vai, Yalunka, and the Creoles.
The Creoles are the descendants of freed Jamaican slaves who settled in the
capital, the Freetown area, in the late 18th century, and they account for the
remaining 10 percent of the population, which is made up of Liberians, Europeans, Lebanese,
Pakistanis, and Indians.
The British colonial masters of Sierra Leone, this partially hilly country,
beautifully planned the city, Freetown, with good connecting streets. One could
even walk throughout the city without joining a taxi or the “Poda-Poda,” their
private-public buses.
A young
child of nine or ten could direct a stranger to any one of the streets,
such as Lightfoot Boston, Savage, Sanders, Wilkinson Road, Campbell, Pademba
Road, down to Congo Town, and King Tom.
It is very
easy to walk from the city to Cline Town, where the country’s largest seaport,
Queen Elizabeth II Port, is, even though it is quite far from the town center.
For example, going to the port from Circular Road, often pronounced in Creole
as “Sakula Road,” would take you between fifteen and twenty minutes.
But from the
town center, going through Kissy Road could take you a little more than
twenty minutes. The port is one of the busiest ports in West Africa since
almost the entire business passes through it. Freetown was always bubbling with
commercial activities.
The High Court, the General Post Office, the headquarters of Barclays Bank, and
almost all the governmental institutions were located close to Siaka
Stevens Street. Right in the middle of the city is the cotton tree, which is
said to be over a hundred years old and serves as a roundabout.
From Lumley Beach towards Wilkinson Road, Sanders Street, and Savage Street,
the houses are located close to the streets. From downtown Siaka Stevens
Street, towards Congo Town, at the Cotton Tree roundabout, one would have to
turn right to the Pademba prison, named after the road as Pademba Road.
Adjacent to the tree was the National Museum.
At the age
of 28, energetic and happy, I embraced Sierra Leone as my second country.
Employed at the famous Red Lion Bakery in Kingtom, Freetown, as a van driver. I
supplied bread each morning at the bread shops on Siaka Stevens Street and
Kissy Road.
Both Mrs.
Ashwood and her daughter, Mrs. Pamela Grant, gave me the job, and the kind
Savage family that gave me accommodation helped me to integrate. Eventually,
I naturalized and became one of them. I lived in Freetown for a couple of years
and loved their food and music.
To take
control of the country, rebel activities led to the worst civil war in the
history of Sierra Leone. The long decade of civil war left unforgettable scars and
remnants of amputees fighting for education and survival.
After the war, Sierra Leone put that bitter experience behind it without the idea that a disease called Ebola would strike the country. Out of nowhere, in the year 2014, Ebola, a hemorrhagic fever virus that had already appeared in Marburg and Frankfurt, in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1967, and then first in Congo in 1976, appeared in West Africa to strike Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia.
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