susan kemble
1.4K posts
🏴🇬🇧 On the West African coast, there is a city called Freetown. Its name tells you everything. In 1787, British abolitionists founded it as a home for freed slaves and Black loyalists from Britain. They called it the Province of Freedom. When Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807, Freetown became the base of the West Africa Squadron. For sixty years, the Royal Navy patrolled 3,000 miles of coastline. 1,600 slave ships captured. Every person freed was brought here. 150,000 people. The coast was deadly. Malaria. Yellow fever. Dysentery. Two thousand British sailors died on this station. They knew the risk when they volunteered. They went anyway. Around the 150,000 people brought to Freetown, a city grew. Schools. Churches. Courts. One of those rescued was a child pulled from a slave ship by the Royal Navy. His name was Samuel Ajayi Crowther. Educated in Freetown. Translated the Bible into Yoruba. Became the first African ordained as an Anglican bishop. Then went back to West Africa to negotiate the treaties that ended the trade on land. The trade that tried to take him, he helped close. 🇬🇧 One city. One story. Built entirely from conscience. Ordinary British people built it. Help us keep this history alive. 👇 Be Part Of Us: 👉proudofus.co.uk 🙏 Be Proud Of Us. 🇬🇧
