A Free Town
Summary
Host Moira Lothian MacLean explores Britain’s post-abolition resettlement of freed Black people to Sierra Leone with historians Melissa Bennett and Iamide Thomas. They discuss the failed 1787 mission, the founding of Freetown by Black Loyalists and Maroons, and the harsh apprenticeship system imposed on liberated Africans. The episode reveals how Britain used these settlements for colonial labor and military conscription, challenging the moral narrative of abolition.
Topics discussed
Introduction: The problem of freedom after abolition
Black Loyalists and the Black Poor in London
The failed 1787 resettlement to Sierra Leone
Founding Freetown: Nova Scotians and Maroons
Liberated Africans and the Creole melting pot
Creole elites, education, and systemic racism
Personal connections to Sierra Leonean heritage
British colonial expansion and the Hut Tax War
The apprenticeship system: forced labor post-emancipation
Conscription into the West India Regiment
Modern parallels: Deportation and resettlement policies
Challenging the dominant narrative of British abolition
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