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Abstract
Sierra Leone and South Carolina have had strong ties since the era of the slave trade. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that connection was maintained. This article explores the ties between the two regions, arguing that in recent years Sierra Leone's historical memory has focused on the Low Country region, as its citizens in Diaspora seek to connect themselves to aspects of American history.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Ken Kelly for organizing the conference, allowing us to ruminate on this subject, as well as my mother Amelia Blyden, my husband Christopher Bickersteth, and three children, Pearl, Ayinde, and Nalo.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on the contributor
Nemata Blyden is Associate Professor of History and International Affairs at George Washington University. She has a BA in History and International Relations (Mount Holyoke College), and an MPhil and PhD (Yale University). She specializes in African/African Diaspora history. Her current work explores African immigration to the USA. She has published several articles on the “Back to Africa” movement. Blyden has been a contributor to Encyclopedia Britannica and the In Motion project for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (New York Public Library). Blyden is the author of West Indians in West Africa: A Diaspora in Reverse (Rochester University Press, 2000). She has lived in Africa, Europe and the Soviet Union, and remains engaged with issues pertaining to African development.
Notes
1. Ball, Slaves in the Family.
2. Opala, “The Gullah.”
3. Opala, “Priscilla's Homecoming”; Sarata, “Sierra Leone.”
4. “In Motion.”
5. Littlefield, Rice and Slaves; Fields-Black, Deep Roots; Gomez, Exchanging our Country Marks.
6. Miller, Search for a Black Nationality, Chap. 1. See also Shepperson, “Notes.”
7. Capps et al., Diverse Streams. See also Capps et al., New Streams. These are, of course, documented immigrant numbers.
8. Fyfe, History; Peterson, Province of Freedom; Byrd, Captives and Voyagers; Gerzina, Black London.
9. Miller, Search for a Black Nationality; Barnes, Journey of Hope.
10. Gilbert, Black Patriots, 224.
11. Peterson, Province of Freedom; Wilson, The Loyal Blacks.
12. Pulis, Moving On; Pybus, Epic Journeys; Schama, Rough Crossings; Fyfe, “‘our Children’.”
13. T. Perronet Thompson to Castlereagh, November 2, 1808, Despatch 4, re: State of the Colony and its Inhabitants, CO 267/24, Public Record Office, Kew Gardens, London.
14. Alan Gilbert argues that about 23% of blacks evacuated to Nova Scotia were Charlestonians. Gilbert, Black Patriots, 223.
15. Brooks, “Silver Bluff Church.”
16. Fyfe, History, 69, 101. See also Greene, “David George.”
17. George and Rippon, “An Account,” 473–484.
18. Fyfe, History, 55, 56.
19. Smith, “Boston King.”
20. King, “Memoirs.”
21. Fyfe, History, 55.
22. Thomas, Paul Cuffe, 69.
23. Ibid., 80.
24. Extracts, 120.
25. See Harris, Paul Cuffe and Thomas, Paul Cuffe.
26. For a comprehensive account of Kizell's life, see Lowther, Odyssey.
27. Kizell to Bushrod Washington, March 22, 1820, Letter 1 – No Title. The African Intelligencer, July 18200. Quoted in Lowther, Odyssey, 218.
28. Extracts From the Correspondence of Mr., 145.
29. Anderson in Falconbridge, Narrative, 265.
30. Pybus, “Jubilee.”
31. Clifford, From Slavery to Freetown, 26; Nash, “Thomas Peters.”
32. “Missionary Zeal in a Negro” in Church Missionary Society, Missionary Papers. See also Fyfe, History, 133.
33. See Nicol, Edward Jones.
34. Powers, Black Charlestonians, 57. See also “Amherst College Class of 1826.”
35. Hawkins, in Black Apostles, 244. Why Jones chose to look to Africa at this time is unclear but it has been claimed that because of laws in Carolina which prevented blacks who left the state from returning, Jones could not go back home and therefore may have chosen Africa as an alternative. Jones is believed to have gone to Liberia first and then on to Sierra Leone. This is logical given the interest of the Mission School in Liberia. Hugh Hawkins suggests that the Church Missionary Society, already established in Sierra Leone, may have enticed Jones from the American missionary establishment. Liberia was still a young colony having been in existence for only ten years or so and Jones may have believed Sierra Leone to be a more comfortable situation. Some African Americans were dissatisfied with the Liberian colony once they got there.
36. Fyfe, History, 199.
37. Blyden, “Edward Jones,” 159–182; Hawkins, “Edward Jones”; Hawkins, “Edward Jones, Marginal Man”; Contee, “Reverend Edward Jones;” Wade, Black Men of Amherst; Nicol, “Jones Family”; Crowder, “Amherst to Fourah Bay”; Fyfe, History, 387. See also Nicol, Edward Jones.
38. Campbell to Secretary of State, September 5, 1836, dispatch 147, CO 267/133, Public Record Office, Kew Gardens, London.
39. Governor Stephen Hill's dispatch #57, Vol. 3, March 20, 1862, CO 267/276 1862, Public Record Office, Kew Gardens, London.
40. Peoples Advocate, August 5, 1876, 2. See also Peoples Advocate, August 12, 1876, 2 and Peoples Advocate, September 9, 1876, 4.
41. Cleveland Gazette, October 20, 1883.
42. Cleveland Gazette, November 3, 1883.
43. Barnes, Journey of Hope, 46.
44. Northrup, Crosscurrents, 2.
45. Visit Sierra Leone – Blog, “DNA Tests Bringing African.” Perhaps the most striking example of this is the actor Isaiah Washington, who has traced his ancestry back to Sierra Leone. Washington was made a chief in Sierra Leone, and he subsequently established the Gondobay Manga Foundation to aid in the development of communities in Sierra Leone. Recently Washington published a memoir A Man from Another Land.
46. Garber, “Tribute.”
47. Sesay, “Thomas Peters (ca. 1738–1792).”
48. Brooke, “Africans See Their Culture.”
49. This event was chronicled in the documentary Family Across the Sea produced by California Newsreel. See also The Language You Cry In, which documents the connection between an African American family and a Mende woman.
50. “Amelia's Song.”
51. Goffe, “Priscilla”; Sarata, “Sierra Leone.”
52. Seibure, “Sierra Leone.”
53. Ibid.
54. Ibid.
55. Opala, “The Gullah.”
56. Gates, “Episode 1, The Black Atlantic.”
57. In Wonders of the African World Gates highlighted the role of Elmina, and Goree Island was a sponsor of the most recent series.
58. Benton et al., “Find their level,” 477–511.
59. My attention to Gates’ choice of Bunce is to illustrate the point that his use of this particular island as a starting point meant that his viewers would be introduced to a “new” slave fort, and to another story of the slave trade. Emphasis on Bunce allowed the documentary to connect a specific African American story linking Sierra Leone to South Carolina.
60. History of Slavery in the United States.
61. Translation: “This is the true story of our history. Come to Bunce Island. We want the world to know. This is evidence of our story.” History of Slavery in the United States.