Abolitionists Abroad

In 1792, almost 1200 freed American slaves crossed the Atlantic and established Freetown, West Africa, a community dedicated to anti-slavery and opposed to the African chieftan hierachy that was tied to slavery. Thus began an unprecedented movement with critical long-term effects on the evolution of social, religious, and political institutions in modern Africa. This book narrates the story of those freed slaves who led the efforts to abolish the slave trade by attacking its base operation: the capture and sale of people by African chiefs. The author's protagonists set out to establish in West Africa colonies founded on equal rights and opportunity for personal enterprise, communities that would be havens for ex-slaves and an example to the rest of Africa. The ex-slave repatriates brought with them an evangelical Christianity that encouraged individual spirituality - a revolutionary vision in a land where European missionaries had long assumed they could Christianize the whole society by converting chiefs and rulers.