Constitutional Development in Sierra Leone – The Blackhall Experience

The Colony of Sierra Leone

Henry Smeathman, the botanist, beneficial Sierra Leone as probably the most advantageous place for the institution of a settlement.1 Established as a Crown Colony in 1808, the Sierra Leone peninsula and the areas on to the south of it have been ruled by a Governor-in-Council who mixed each Executive and Legislative authority. This system prevailed till 1863 when the Executive and Legislative features have been divided between an Executive Council and a Legislative Council. Though the brand new councils marked a step away from the sooner type of colonial autocracy, it’s argued that they weren’t meant as a transfer in the direction of self-authorities.2 The Colony of Sierra Leone then was impressed by the humanitarian opposition to the establishment of slavery and nurtured by the British willpower to finish the Slave Trade. By the center of the eighteen century, the system of slavery was not too common with the English. On a number of events, public consideration was drawn to the query as as to if a slave ought to turn out to be free after arriving on English soil. The philanthropist Granville Sharp struck an efficient blow in 1772 when “a test case was provided in the case of a slave named James Somerset, who had been brought to England from Jamaica by his master and had subsequently run away from him”three. The rules laid by Lord Chief Justice Mansfield of the English High Court in the case Somerset v. Stewart implied that any slave setting foot in England ought to be deemed a freeman. He famous that “the state of slavery… is incapable of being introduced on any reasons…I cannot say this is allowed or approved by the law of England and therefore the black man must be discharged”.four This well-known Mansfield Decision stimulated the Christian philanthropy of males like Sharp and Wilberforce.

The consequence of this judgement was the liberation of a whole lot of slaves dwelling in England. During the American War of Independence (1776-1983), the British inspired slaves in America to abandon their masters to hitch the British military in return for freedom and land. After the War – which Britain lost- a few of these slaves went to Nova Scotia (Canada) and a few to London. In London, these former slaves have been beset with many issues. Their freedom undoubtedly didn’t imply equality with British topics. Often destitute, most of those freed slaves wandered concerning the streets of England distressing the kindhearted and males of property. They posed a clumsy social drawback. The victor and hero of the Somerset case, Granville Sharp, maintained a rising variety of these slaves collectively known as the Black Poor. It didn’t take lengthy for Granville Sharp to understand that the issue was greater than personal charity would deal with. As a remedial company, a substantial variety of philanthropists shaped a Committee for relieving the Black Poor in 1986 generally known as the Committee of the Black Poor. This Committee was chaired by Jonas Hanway. It was throughout this era of uncertainty that a sure particular person Dr. Henry Smeathman, alias flycatcher, who had lived for about three years in the neighborhood of Sierra Leone strongly proposed the world as an appropriate settlement. In 1785, this botanist licensed Sierra Leone unhealthy for the institution of a concrete settlement. However, in February 1786, he declared the world appropriate for human habitation, crop manufacturing and cattle rearing. His imaginative and prescient for the settlement was principally financial and business. Granville Sharp, the main abolitionist, Jonas Hanway, John and Thomas Clarkson (and subsequently Thomas Fowell Buxton) resorted to a scheme of colonialization. Inadequate funds prevented them from appearing alongside. They appealed to the British authorities for help which the latter willingly gave because it needed to finish the issues posed by the Black Poor.

The Colony of Sierra Leone (which began on 11th May, 1787), started, not as a Colony of Britain, however quite, as a totally unbiased colony with an African governor, Richard Weaver. Needless to state, this was the daybreak or creation of a model new experiment in the connection between the Africans and the Europeans. This experiment was a reverse drive of the so-referred to as African Diaspora for “instead of the old ‘middle passage’ traffic when negroes were taken from Africa and sold into slavery in the markets of Europe and the New World, the new ‘middle passage’ traffic of these years consisted in Negroes making the return journey from Europe and the New World, not for purposes of slavery, but that they might have the opportunity of living their lives as freemen on their own native continent”.5 This settlement was little question a tiny one however had almost all of the necessities of a state. This Governor and the Common Council may need been dubbed President and Parliament respectively. The settlement was administered beneath the previous English system of frankpledge whereby the colony was divided into tithings and lots of. Tithingmen and Hundredors (who have been duly elected representatives) made guidelines for the great authorities of the settlement. These guidelines could also be referred to as legal guidelines. In impact, there existed an unbiased political group composed of free and unbiased blackmen (and ladies).6 Such a quick dialogue reminds one of many historic Greek metropolis state which practised democracy, although in a different way. Simply outlined, “democracy in Africa or anywhere else, is government by the people”7. As Mr. Guy Clutton-Brock – writing a few typical African village group – put it, “the elders sit under the big tree and talk until they agree”eight. This type of democracy (just like that practiced by the City States of Ancient Greece) was barely totally different from that practiced by the settlers in Sierra Leone. In the latter, the best of the settlers to make political selections was not exercised instantly however “through representatives chosen by and responsible to them, known as representative democracy”9. The early structure of Sierra Leone has its significance as the primary occasion in trendy historical past of a self-governing colonial group of non-European inhabitants, the place color was no disqualification and negro freedom have been allowed the political and civil rights of Europeans. As hundredors and tithingmen the black settlers of Sierra Leone had fulfilled administrative duties that had developed into legislative duties; as jurymen that they had proven judgement and intelligence that gained the reward of Europeans.”10 The constitutional proper or privilege to elect representatives was solely a respite.

The Sierra Leone Company Act of 1790 which reworked the St. George’s Bay Company into the Sierra Leone Company with a Royal Charter signaled the beginning of a marathon interval of settler suppression and entailment of independence. Porter outlines 4 main developments between 1807 and 1808 which not solely altered by reshaped and restructured the historical past of the Colony of Sierra Leone. First, the Slave Trade was abolished in 1807 by the British Parliament. Second, the African Institution (primarily composed of members of the Sierra Leone Company) was shaped for the bodily regeneration of Africa. The members hoped or relatively tried by means of this African Institution to proceed exercising their curiosity and affect in the Colony. Third, partly because of the chapter of the exhausted Sierra Leone Company and partly to suppress the inhuman Atlantic Traffic, a Crown Colony was established over Sierra Leone on 1st January 1808. Fourth, the Order in Council of 16th March, 1808 established a Vice-Admiralty Court in Sierra Leone for making an attempt each captured slaves and their house owners.11 A catastrophic implication of those developments was the abrogation of the legal jurisdiction of the settlers. They misplaced all rights of participation and illustration. Since 1863 “though(ugh) the dimensions of the Legislative Council progressively elevated, its important options remained unchanged.”12 It would, therefore, not be farfetched to briefly look at the changes in the state of the colony and the Blackhall Constitution for “this construction didn’t change a lot till 1924….”13 The Colony of Sierra Leone was partly established in 1978 to “safe a house on the continent of Africa for natives of Africa and their descendants who for one purpose or one other, primarily, due to slavery and the Slave Trade, had left their native shores and have been perforce dwelling overseas.”14 One could identify four groups of settlers in the Colony of Sierra Leone. The first was the Black Poor who arrived in 1787. The second group of settlers, the Nova Scotians, arrived in 1792. The next two groups of settlers, the Maroons and Liberated Africans/Recaptives, arrived in the nineteenth century, the former in 1800 and the latter from 1808 onwards. Relations between and among these various groups of settlers were initially hostile and the Freetown community or society was hierarchically stratified. There was that recognized social distance between the Settlers and the Liberated Africans. With time however, Freetown became a melting pot of cultures. Faced with the western cultural patterns as interpreted by the New World Settlers (that is the Nova Scotians predominantly), which patterns were reinforced by the patronage and favour of the European administration and other ancillary agencies like the missionary societies, the Liberated Africans, as the fourth group of immigrants came to be known “started to repeat these patterns which quickly turned the excessive status for all teams in the territory.”15 This ‘new’ land enabled settlers to mould themselves and the result was a new nation with a distinct and unique identity. Religion, education and trade were three factors which aided the transformation of the lives of the settlers whose descendants were designated the Krios. Religion and education, according to Porter were “indicators of standing in the Freetown society and as avenues by which a person or household, correctly motivated, can transfer vertically in the stratification ladder.”16 It was subsequently widespread by 1850 to see descendants of settlers and Liberated Africans (Krios) in the registers of the C.M.S. (now Sierra Leone) Grammar School (1845) and the Female Insituttion (1849), later often known as the Annie Walsh Memorial School. As households turned affluent, they moved from the unbiased chapels to the large church buildings. The position or significance of schooling for example should not be underestimated. It opened the eyes of the Krios.

The 1850s ushered in a brand new period of political exercise. There was a revolution in concepts because of the emergence of the brand new elite. Education “made males extra prepared when the necessity arose to query the entire basis of the previous order.”17 But what was this previous order? This was the political or constitutional association in the Colony. Supreme energy – legislative, government and judicial – rested with the Governors who have been all whitemen. Her Majesty wouldn’t intervene in colonial affairs with out the recommendation of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, or to the Cabinet. These Colonial governors have been accountable to not the individuals they ruled, however to the Queen, the British Parliament or the British citizens.

Events resulting in the 1863 Constitution

Why have been the Krios not adequately represented in the Council which ruled the Colony? As Wyse caustically realized, “the Krios contributed to the event of politics in West Africa. Education, the Christian faith and affiliation with the white man outfitted the Krios with the required instruments to know European authorities and western political ideology, and to make use of their choices, restricted as they undoubtedly have been, to problem the European ruling caste system”.18 The Krio society was conscious of the explanations behind the institution of Granville Town in 1787. Granville Sharp meant the settlement to be greater than a receptacle for indigent blacks. He dreamt of a free settlement. The Krios now wished for a return of the interval when ancestors loved free black rule. They perceived their preliminary position of brokers in the transport of western civilization and Christianity with utmost satisfaction. Krios, the educated class, have been dissatisfied by British unwillingness to introduce democratic authorities into the Colony, although the British themselves loved democracy at residence. They turned all of the extra once they in contrast what was occurring in the Colony with what was occurring in Liberia, the place the individuals ruled themselves. They began to assault the Crown Colony system of presidency which was imposed on them.19 Other developments aggravated the will of the educated elite in the Colony of Sierra Leone to query the complete basis of the previous system of colonial administration. Sierra Leone produced the primary group of western educated elite in British West Africa and was fulfilling the dream of Governor Charles McCarthy (1814-1824). She acted as a base for the unfold of faith, civilization and western schooling in West Africa.

Fourah Bay College (1827) served British West Africa and was the one college in the area till the flip of the century. It was subsequently very painful to the Krios that the Colony of Sierra Leone ran a a lot slower constitutional race than the opposite British West African nations which had gained extra ‘superior’ constitutions which offered for separate Legislative and Executive Councils. When the Gambia was separated from Sierra Leone in 1843, an Executive and a Legislative Council have been constituted there and the enterprise group, dominated by a number of European companies, given illustration. In the Gold Coast too, Executive and Legislative Councils have been arrange in 1850. The Liberian Republic was self governing. But the structure of Sierra Leone remained, with solely small modification, what it had been in 1821. Its residents have been taxed however nonetheless unrepresented. Deprived even of the communal voice of a Grand Jury, they might nonetheless solely current their views in petitions.20 The settlers in the colony had no acknowledged political get together in the 1850s to query the Constitution of 1808 which was out of date in the face of current social improvement. However, the absence of a political celebration was a low barrier which didn’t frustrate the efforts of the settlers. As Porter noticed, “because the Colony expanded, many turned discontented with the type of authorities in which that they had no share. In 1850, the Rev. E.T. Poole, Colonial Chaplain, revealed a e-book in which he protested towards the Colony being dominated by a secret council in which the individuals weren’t represented in any respect”21. This was nevertheless a person strain. In 1853, a strong group, the Sierra Leone Committee of Correspondence was shaped by a West Indian, Mr. Lenaghan to advocate for the legal and constitutional privilege of illustration. This native physique of businessmen was later outmoded by the extra highly effective or influential Mercantile Association. It is however becoming at this level to pay tribute or briefly touch upon the Mercantile Association or somewhat the position of the Merchant elite because the articulates of the center-class. Trade was to turn into an instrument of ethical upliftment. Largely by way of the efforts of Governor Charles McCarthy and the Settlers themselves, there was a exceptional change in the usual of dwelling of the latter. By forming bidding teams and different co-operative societies, the Settlers in the Colony have been capable of make big income. It quickly turned clear that a service provider elite was creating. An group designed to symbolize the pursuits of the rising mercantile group, the Mercantile Association, was shaped by a gaggle of profitable retailers in 1851.

The Mercantile Association performed an important position in political improvement in the Colony in the 1850s. Whereas writers like Edmund Burke believed that political authority derives from custom, others like James Harrington have argued that political authority was the outgrowth of financial order. In different phrases, political energy follows financial energy. If something, there’s some semblance of fact in Harrington’s proposition. With financial energy, the Mercantile Association (a multiracial group) turned a political mouthpiece of the individuals because it incessantly petitioned the colonial administration. (As can be seen later, this Association was so necessary that one of many appointments to the Legislative Council of 1863 was made with its session). The Mercantile Association (which had some professionals) was not solely numerically and lamentably stronger than the Committee of Correspondence however comprised very influential black and white settlers who actually managed a considerable a part of the financial system. Irrespective of this composition, this all-highly effective Association in 1958 “petitioned towards abuses over taxes and duties and requested for a brand new structure for Sierra Leone.”22 The Association additionally requested for an elected meeting. The Settlers of the Colony of Sierra Leone additionally had worldwide help. The Aborigines Protection Society and the Anti Slavery Society in England have been two our bodies which questioned the British House of Lords for maladministration in the Colony of Sierra Leone. One can be legitimately charged with educational treason for failing to acknowledge the position of the Press throughout this era. On a extra basic observe, the African-owned newspaper in the course of the colonial interval had a number of basic traits. First, it rivaled the colonial administration. It was the simplest weapon for airing lengthy-felt political grievances and influencing the tide of occasions in the absence of a democratically elected authorities. Second, the Press was each the interpreter of the beliefs and aspirations of the individuals in addition to the custodian, guardian and protector of their rights and liberties. On a extra specific notice, the Press in Sierra Leone in the course of the 1840s and 1850s was removed from ineffective. It is usually argued that newspapers in the tail finish of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries have been of a greater high quality than these of the 1840s and 1850s. That however, newspapers in the 1840s and 1850s have been extremely essential of the colonial administration. One such newspaper which attacked deeply-felt political grievances, the direct rule of the unrepresentative council (in which the powers of the governor have been virtually absolute) and its oblique energy of patronage was the New Era.

In May 1855, William Drape, a West Indian, established the very first newspaper on African soil. This weekly publication had been expressly based to mirror native opinion. Many ultimately noticed the paper as “a rally level for anti-authorities forces…”23 It was clear by 1863 that the 1808 Constitution was outmoded as far as development was concerned. It is true that with pressure only fools and gods do not change. The colonial government realized that the wind of change had been transformed into a hurricane blowing over the Colony of Sierra Leone. The incumbent governor, Governor Hill, was very obstinate. The Settlers needed a governor who was considerable enough. They found such a man in Governor Blackhall, an Irish landowner who was appointed in 1863. As Fyfe observed, this gentleman “was able to reverse, as bidden, his predecessor’s bellicose coverage, and to simply accept a brand new legislature.”24

The 1863 Constitution

Legislation was being handed in the Colony of Sierra Leone to organize the best way for the formal introduction of the Blackhall Constitution. The pressures of the Settlers in the Colony and their supporters in Britain for additional constitutional advance weren’t in useless because the British or colonial authorities “acceded to the calls for for constitutional change and launched a Charter dated 27th May, 1863 along with Royal Instructions dated 30th May, 1863 following a brand new structure for the Colony of Sierra Leone.”25 On 26th July, 1863, Governor Major Samuel Wensley Blackhall issued the following proclamation, “I do hereby publicly proclaim the stated Charter of Justice to be in full pressure and impact from this date.”26 The Charter and the Royal Instructions which brought the Blackhall Constitution into being revoked the Charter of 1799. In this novel constitution, “the Governor’s Council was abolished and in its place a Legislative and an Executive Council have been arrange.”27 It have to be famous that constitutional historical past correct commenced in Sierra Leone in 1863.

Perhaps, it will not be farfetched to say that this was the start of our trendy House of Representatives or higher nonetheless Parliament. Looking intently on the particulars, the Executive Council was composed solely of the official members, that’s to say, these forming the Legislative Council, with the governor’s appointees. Members of the Executive Council subsequently have been H.E. the Governor (Major S.W. Blackhall), The Chief Justice (John Carr), The Colonial Secretary (George Nicol), The Queen’s Advocate (H.J. Huggins), The Officer Commanding Troops (Colonel Hughes).28 The Legislative Council consisted of the governor (who bore the official title of Governor and Commander in Chief), the official members of the Executive Council and “such different individual or individuals nominated and appointed to serve on the Council”29. The official members were compelled to support the policies of the Governor. As Martin Wight put it, an official member “couldn’t be continued in the workplace and seat if his conscience shouldn’t allow him to offer the Crown such a measure of help as could also be essential to allow the governor to hold on the enterprise of presidency in the Legislative.”30

The Council made provisions for less than two appointed unofficial members. These have been chosen from among the many inhabitants. In his choice, the governor was required to think about “not solely to those that are almost definitely to help the federal government however those that might be taken to symbolize and can inform you of the needs of the extra clever portion of the group… and undertake the recommendation of any constituted physique of a kind of widespread sort.”31 Two conclusions could be drawn or derived from the above quotation. First, the unofficial members were nominated to represent public opinion and second, by seeking to know the wishes of the intelligent portion of the community and the advice of any popular body, the government used the unofficial members to bring in the articulate section of the community. Thus, as Peterson observed, “when Governor Blackhall revived the Mercantile Association in 1863 to elect an unofficial member for the newly instituted Legislative Council for Sierra Leone, it elected the main African service provider in Freetown, John Ezzidio. As a member of the Legislative Council, Ezzidio remained a consultant of the business group.32 The different unofficial member was the influential Charles Heddle who had sat on the previous Governor’s Council for a few years. It was clear that the Mercantile Association was nonetheless influential. Revived briefly in 1863, the Mercantile Association was reconstituted in 1864 because the Chamber of Commerce. After 1863, though it was “excluded from constitutional function, the Chamber still provided a forum where grievances could be ventilated and reforms suggested.”33 A crucial examination or evaluate of the composition and features of the Councils established by the 1863 Constitution clearly reveals obstacles to their improvement as really consultant establishments. A radical examination of the Blackhall Constitution places one in a greater place to know the Slater Constitution. The powers of the governor as an example have been extraordinary. As President of each Councils, he was to preside over conferences and suggest the agenda for dialogue. Markin Kilson forces one to consider that “evidence of the prevalence of a democratic heritage in British West African colonies was apparent at the very start of the constitutional development.”34 Marcus Jones’ sensible abstract of the governor’s powers for example belies Kilson’s assertion that “the governor had the right to nominate and appoint whomsoever he pleased…He could summon, adjourn, prorogue or dissolve the Council at will. He was the undisputed ruler, subject only to directions from the home government.”35 Hargreaves mentioned at size the British system of election and illustration in her colonies. He concluded the part by stating that although Ezzidio’s election was hardly a democratic one, it was in no approach an arbitrary selection however additional realistically famous that “such systems were clearly unsatisfactory to people who felt they had a right to choose their own representatives and to decide how they would be governed.”36 Wyse pierced the guts of the matter when he noticed that Ezzidio’s election might in no approach be seen as a precedent for nascent political independence. Although the consent of the Legislative Council was essential to move laws and the annual estimates, that consent was all the time assured by the official majority. If one critically assesses the Executive Council Minutes e-book of 20th July, 1863 Constitution was merely a daft doc. According to A.Dike, Clerk of the Executive Council, “His Excellency took the advice of his Council on the estimates for 1864… The Board having suggested some alterations approved of and recommended that the same be submitted to the Legislative Council at its sitting.”37 This is all absurd because the Governor is all the time assured of an official majority in the Legislative Council. But what kind of democracy was this? It is true that the 1863 Constitution offered a discussion board for the dialogue of political points however “ironically the Constitution marked the beginning of a declining phase in the political fortunes of Sierra Leone”38.

The proven fact that the Legislative Council on some events influenced colonial authorities coverage didn’t imply that it was very efficient. Although John Ezzidio had an inventory of distinguished successors, one should not overlook that regardless of the state of affairs, a colonial authorities represented a set of or autocratic pursuits. Although the Legislative Council had the fitting to recommendation the governor, the latter was not sure to simply accept such recommendation. Perhaps a good description of the Constitution was that rendered by Blyden. As he noticed, “a note worthy feature of the 1863 Constitution was the extension of the privilege of unofficial representation on the Legislative Council to the African settler population.”39 One should observe properly using the phrase privilege which aptly described the state of affairs. But why not proper? Indeed the colonial authorities was not but able to concede illustration. Some erroneously consider this Constitution was democratic due to the African illustration. Indeed, it’s extremely indubitable that “this development could hardly be regarded as the beginning of true representative government in Sierra Leone since the British government insisted that Ezzidio was not a delegate but a nominee of the merchants, removable at the Queen’s pleasure and not at the pleasure of the merchants.”40 This ‘new’ association subsequently didn’t foreshadow any unbiased political group. 1863 left the Settlers in a disillusioned state. The main defects of the judicial system that existed earlier than this era have been preserved. One dismisses the choruses of reward which prompt that it was a welcome and superior measure as misleadingly over simplistic because it lamentably failed to satisfy the calls for, aspirations and expectations of the Settlers. As Porter put it, “the people were clearly ready for a change and this was (only) partially met in 1863….”41 It was advised that the Colony would have profited from the expertise gained by the appliance from and adaptation of those institutional processes of a liberal democracy which the Constitution of 1863 and its implementative units launched. In the sunshine of the suggestions made by a Parliamentary Committee which investigated the circumstances of the West African settlements inside two years of the 1863 Constitution in Sierra Leone, the decision seems uncertain.42

Conclusion

It is certainly a truism that the 1963 Constitution marked an inch away from earlier types of colonial autocracy. At the identical time, it’s also incontrovertible that this Blackhall Constitution was “essentially a device for the more efficient government of an expanding colony, rather than a concession to the principle of representation.”43

References

1. Arthur Porter, Creoledom, (London: Oxford University Press, 1963), p.10

2. Martin Kilson, Political change in a West African State, (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1966),p.98

three. T.N. Goddard, The handbook of Sierra Leone, (London: Grant Richards Ltd, 1925), p.20

four. W.M. Macmillan, The street to self rule, (London: Faber & Faber, 1959), p.51

5. Porter, op.cit., p.19

6. W.S. Marcus Jones, “Legal improvement and constitutional change in Sierra Leone, 1787-1971,

unpublished manuscript”, p.30

7. Rupert Emerson, The political awakening of Africa, (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1975), p.122

eight. Ibid.

9. The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol.four, s.v. “Democracy”, p.5.

10. Kilson, op.cit., p.98

11. Porter, op.cit., pp.35-36

12. Christopher Allen, “Constitutional change in Sierra Leone, 1863-1967”, p.1

13. Ibid.

14. Porter, op.cit., p.10

15. Ibid., p.12

16. Porter, op.cit., p.78

17. David Thomson, Europe since Napoleon, (Norfolk: Lowe and Brydone Printers Limited, 1957), p.four

18. A.J.G. Wyse: cited in Joseph E. Harris, Global Dimensions of the African Diaspora, (Washington: Washington University Press, 1982), p.327

19. J.D. Omer Cooper et. al., The Growth of African Civilization, Vol. 1, (Longman: Longman Group Limited, 1968), p.154

20. Christopher Fyfe, A historical past of Sierra Leone, (London: Oxford University Press, 1962), pp.281-282

21. Porter, op.cit., p.56

22. Jones, op.cit., p.214

23. Frederick J.A. Omu, cited in J.D. Fage, J.R. Gray and R.A. Oliver, eds. Journal of African History, Vol.

IX, No.2, 1968

24. Fyfe, op.cit., p.318

25. Jones, op.cit., p.11

26. Ibid., p.10

27. Cecil M. Fyle, The historical past of Sierra Leone, (London: Evans Brothers Ltd., 1981), p.75

28. Jones, op.cit., p.221ff

29. Blyden, op.cit., p.37

30. Martin Wight, The improvement of the Legislative Council (1806-1945), (London: Faber and Faber, 1945), p.109

31. Jones, op.cit., p.214

32. John E. Peterson, Province of freedom, (Evanston: North Western University Press, 1969), p.295

33. Fyfe, op.cit., p.331

34. Wilson, op.cit., p.four

35. Jones, op.cit., p.213

36. J.D. Hargreaves, “Problems of constitutional development in West Africa”, Publication 1, Department of Extra Mural Studies

37. Executive Council Minutes (20th July 1863-Seventh November 1870), Sierra Leone Public Archives

38. W.S. Marcus-Jones, “The protection of fundamental rights and freedom of the individual in Sierra Leone”, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Yale (n.d.), p.31

39. Blyden, op.cit., p.42

40. Gershon Collier, Sierra Leone: Experiment in democracy in an African nation, (New York: New York University Press, 1970), p.7

41. Porter, op.cit., p.123

42. Blyden, op.cit., p.43

43. Collier, op.cit., p.7

Source by Oliver Harding

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