Sierra Leone

==== Establishment of the Province of Freedom ====
In January 1787, the ''Atlantic'' and the ''Belisarius'' set sail for Sierra Leone, but bad weather forced them to divert to Plymouth, during which time about 50 passengers died. Another 24 were discharged, and another 23 ran away. Eventually, with some more recruitment, 411 passengers sailed to Sierra Leone in April 1787. On the voyage between Plymouth and Sierra Leone, 96 passengers died.<ref name=Siva2021/><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://blackloyalist.com/canadiandigitalcollection/story/exodus/company.htm |title=Black Loyalist Heritage Society |access-date=19 October 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928222047/http://blackloyalist.com/canadiandigitalcollection/story/exodus/company.htm |archive-date=28 September 2007 |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.plymouth.gov.uk/gustavusvassa |title=Gustavus Vassa: Olaudah Equiano |publisher=Plymouth City Council |access-date=19 October 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013064927/http://www.plymouth.gov.uk/gustavusvassa |archive-date=13 October 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/sierraleone.htm|title=Economic History of Sierra Leone|access-date=10 October 2016|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303200704/http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/sierraleone.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1787 the British Crown founded a settlement in Sierra Leone in what was called the "[[Province of Freedom]]". About 400 black and 60 white colonists reached Sierra Leone on 15 May 1787. After they established [[Granville Town]], most of the first group of colonists died, owing to disease and warfare with the indigenous African peoples ([[Temne people|Temne]]), who resisted their encroachment. When the ships left them in September, their numbers had been reduced to "276 persons, namely 212 black men, 30 black women, 5 white men and 29 white women".<ref name=Siva2021/>

The settlers that remained forcibly captured land from a local African chieftain, but he retaliated, attacking the settlement, which was reduced to a mere 64 settlers comprising 39 black men, 19 black women, and six white women. Black settlers were captured by unscrupulous traders and sold as slaves, and the remaining colonists were forced to arm themselves for their own protection.<ref name=Siva2021/> The 64 remaining colonists established a second Granville Town.<ref>{{Cite book |last = Pham |first = John-Peter |title = Child Soldiers, Adult Interests: The Global Dimensions of the Sierra Leonean Tragedy |publisher = Nova Publishers |year = 2005 |pages = 4–8 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ZnPFKpwoIkIC&pg=PA4 |isbn = 978-1-59454-671-6 |access-date = 17 June 2014}}</ref><ref>Michael Sivapragasam, ''Why Did Black Londoners Not Join the Sierra Leone Resettlement Scheme 1783–1815?'' London: Open University, 2013.</ref>