No. 3. 
Extract from despatch from the Governor of Sierra Leone to the 
Secretary of State for the Colonies. 
Government House, 
Freetown, 
20th June, 1924. 
SIR, 
With reference to my despatch of the 30th April last,* I have 
the honour to address you on the subject of domestic slavery in 
Sierra Leone. 
I propose first to review the history of slavery in Sierra Leone 
since the proclamation of the Protectorate in 1896 ; then to discuss 
some features of the existing local law on the subject, comparing 
it with the law in other West African Colonies; next to record 
my action in regard to the problem since I arrived in Sierra Leone 
two years ago, and finally to make certain recommendations with 
a view to abolishing at an early date the remaining modicum of 
Government recognition of the slave status. 
History. 
Though slave raiding and dealing in Sierra Leone had consider- 
ably diminished since the establishment of the Frontier Police in 
1892 (which force did much to stop the wars on which the slavery 
system was dependent), it was not until 1896-1897 that the first 
legislation on the subject was passed. The Protectorate Ordinance 
enacted that slave raiding and slave dealing were unlawful, but 
it also provided that a slave might redeem himself and his family 
on payment of certain specified sums: moreover by section 51 
of Ordinance No. 16 of 1905 it was made unlawful to harbour 
or assist any native who left his chiefdom without authority; the 
extent of the interference with the system of slavery was thus 
strictly limited. The main object indeed appears to have been 
to remove as far as possible the principal cause of the interminable 
native wars which persistently retarded the development of the 
country. 
Nevertheless the momentous announcement that slave dealing 
was henceforth illegal caused great perturbation among the chiefs. 
In paragraph 80 of his despatch of 7th July, 1899, reviewing 
the insurrection of 1898 and Sir David Chalmer’s report thereon, 
Mr. Chamberlain wrote :— 
* It seems clear that the serious political and social changes 
which were gradually and steadily being brought about by 
the extension of civilised influence into the interior, and 
especially those affecting slavery, by which the wealth and 
* No. 2. 
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