Province of Freedom

1787 did not just see one fleet filled with convicts sailing for the first time from Portsmouth to set up a new colony in an unknown place. In the minds of many contemporaries the famous sailing of the first fleet to Australia was irrevocably linked with another, now forgotten, destined for Cline Town in Sierra Leone. This less famous fleet was to remove many of the freed but poverty stuck ex slaves and convicts in London to form a utopian new colony, the Province of Freedom, in Africa. It was initially expected that these two fleets would sail together for part of the journey and both waited around Portsmouth for notification to sail. As the Daily Universal Register reported from Portsmouth in January 1787: 'The Naulitus, with the two transports and the Blacks, intended for the new settlement on the Coast of Guinea is expected to sail today.' In fact a series of delays affected both ventures. An epidemic of fever was followed by a small mutiny and the Naulitus finally sailed without those destined for Australia in mid February. Interestingly along with the 'poor blacks' were white women and some British merchants. They arrived in this Province of Freedom in May 1787. Although Sierra Leone sounded pleasant being described as 'there is plenty of wood, water and every necessity of life sufficient for the support of more than 1000 inhabitants', this new colony initally struggled. In 1808 the British took it over as its base for anti slavery naval patrols. Most of the residents stayed however, took over some British culture and language and formed the basis of the flourishing merchant Creole peoples of the area. To find out more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Sierra_Leone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province_of_Freedom Portsmouth Paper No 50: Portsmouth and the First Fleet 1786-1787