Abolition and Empire in Sierra Leone and Liberia

Abstract

Abolition and Empire in Sierra Leone and Liberia. By Bronwen Everill. Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Pp. vii, 232; maps, photographs, bibliography, index. $85.00There are just a few comparative studies on Africa's pioneer colonies for erstwhile enslaved Africans in Great Britain and the United States. This dearth makes Everill's book special. It is a rare analysis of British and American anti-slave trade campaigns in Sierra Leone and Liberia respectively. Her central argument is refreshing. Contrary to the historiography that traces anti-slave trade strategies directly to London and Washington, D.C., Everill contends that Sierra Leoneans and Liberians adapted those policies to specific, perceived realities. These policies, she asserts, constitute British and American imperialism, as they involved territorial annexations and the diffusion of British and American ideas and material cultures. This nuanced interpretation-stemming from what is obviously the connection "between imperialism and humanitarianism"-makes Everill's comparative study thought provoking.The book's seven chapters, along with an Introduction and an Epilogue, are well knit. Chapter 1 reviews the transatlantic interconnections that gave rise to Liberia and Sierra Leone. The next two chapters focus on the core of the anti-slavery strategy-"Civilization, Commerce, and Christianity"-and the evolutions of privileged classes in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Unsurprisingly, in both cases the colonists showed strong attachment to the material cultures in their former homes. Everill makes an interesting contrast here. One result of the 3C's was that the Sierra Leonean elite became more incorporated into the British Empire, thereby consolidating that cohort's British identity; however, this was hardly true of Liberians. Institutions that pulled Sierra Leoneans into the British imperial orbit-commercial, religious, educational, etc.-seem to have alienated Liberians from their American "Empire." Everill notes that this was so because "Liberia had fewer ties to American 'strategic interests' (p. 147). For example, while Sierra Leone's imperial connections provided access directly to various British businesses, Liberia's merchants generally carried out their American transactions through special contacts via the American Colonization Society, founder of Liberia. Research into Liberia's nineteenthcentury sugar industry fully supports Everill's findings. Sale of sugar to the United States, along with acquisition of sugarcane mills by prominent Liberian planters, was conducted essentially through "friends of colonization. …