St. George's Bay Company
The Sierra Leone Company was the successor to the St. George's Bay Company that had been founded in 1790 following a mostly unsuccessful effort by the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor in 1787 to establish a free settlement for the "Black Poor" of London, many of whom were Black Loyalists, who had escaped and fought for the British following Dunmore's Proclamation during the American War of Independence). The 1787 expedition was made up of 300 of London's Black Poor, 60 English Working-class Women, and an assortment of white officials, clergy and craftsmen to assist in building the colony – 411 men, women and children in all. Upon landing, they founded Granville Town as their base. This first colony only lasted about two and a half years, decimated by disease and later abandonment. The coup de grace occurred in 1789, when the neighboring Temne people burned the settlement during a dispute between the Temne and slave traders. Although Granville Town was re-founded in 1791 under the auspices of Alexander Falconbridge, this settlement was not the basis for the colony or settlement established by the Company in March, 1792.
Read more about this topic: Sierra Leone Company
Famous quotes containing the words bay and/or company:
“The seagulls wings shall dip and pivot him,
Shedding white rings of tumult, building high
Over the chained bay waters Liberty
Then, with inviolate curve, forsake our eyes”
—Hart Crane (18991932)
“It has lately been drawn to your correspondents attention that, at social gatherings, she is not the human magnet she would be. Indeed, it turns out that as a source of entertainment, conviviality, and good fun, she ranks somewhere between a sprig of parsley and a single ice- skate. It would appear, from the actions of the assembled guests, that she is about as hot company as a night nurse.”
—Dorothy Parker (18931967)