Settler Town (Settler Tong in Krio) is the oldest part of the city of

Freetown Freetown () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, e ...

, now the capital of

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

, and was the first home of the

Nova Scotian Settlers The Nova Scotian Settlers, or Sierra Leone Settlers (also known as the Nova Scotians or more commonly as the Settlers), were Black Britons or Black Canadians who founded the settlement of Freetown, Sierra Leone and the Colony of Sierra Leone, ...

History

The Nova Scotian Settlers were

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

s, many of them ex-

slaves Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

, who had escaped to British lines during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

. After the British defeat, they had first emigrated to Halifax, but did not find a warm reception or climate. As a result, on January 15, 1792, Lieutenant

John Clarkson John Gibson Clarkson (July 1, 1861 – February 4, 1909) was an American Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. He played from 1882 to 1894. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Clarkson played for the Worcester Ruby Legs (1882), Chicago Whi ...

led 1,196 of them from Halifax Harbor in fifteen ships across the Atlantic to what is now

on behalf of the

Sierra Leone Company The Sierra Leone Company was the corporate body involved in founding the Freetown, second British colony in Africa on 11 March 1792 through the resettlement of Black Loyalists who had initially been settled in Nova Scotia (the Nova Scotian Settler ...

. They arrived on March 11 and founded the settlement of Freetown. These newcomers came to be known as the "Nova Scotians" and the "Settlers". During the

French Revolutionary Wars The French Revolutionary Wars () were a series of sweeping military conflicts resulting from the French Revolution that lasted from 1792 until 1802. They pitted French First Republic, France against Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, Habsb ...

, on the night of 27 September or on 28 September, 1794, a French squadron arrived and plundered and destroyed Freetown. The Company's ship ''Harpy'', which had just arrived from England with a cargo valued at £10,000, and two smaller vessels were captured, and the slave factories were put out of commission for a while. The Sierra Leone Company suffered losses estimated at £55,000, £15,000 of that from the destruction of buildings. Following the arrival of the

Jamaican Maroons Jamaican Maroons descend from Africans who freed themselves from slavery in the Colony of Jamaica and established communities of Free black people in Jamaica, free black people in the island's mountainous interior, primarily in the eastern Pari ...

in 1800, this second set of colonists established Maroon Town to the west of Settler Town. Settler Town was located between Little East Street (now Malamah-Thomas Street) and George Street, the latter being the traditional boundary with Maroon Town. During the nineteenth century, Settler Town was a prestigious residential area.

Notable people

Notable residents include three American ex-slaves and

Black Loyalist Black Loyalists were people of African descent who sided with Loyalists during the American Revolutionary War. In particular, the term referred to men enslaved by Patriots who served on the Loyalist side because of the Crown's guarantee of fr ...

s: * Thomas Peters (1738–1792), considered one of the founding fathers of Sierra Leone * David George (c. 1743–1810), a preacher and founder of the first Baptist church * Moses Wilkinson (born c. 1756/47), a blind and lame preacher who established the first

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

church in Settler Town

References

{{Black Loyalists Neighbourhoods in Freetown Nova Scotian Settler (Sierra Leone) Populated places established in 1792 Populated places established by Sierra Leone Creoles 1792 establishments in the British Empire

History

Notable people

See also

References