A had no previous opportunity of asserting his right, 1 would 
listen to his case provided it did not date back more than nine 
years. (ii) In cases where slaves have run away and thereby 
enjoyed freedom in the Protectorate for more than three years 
I do not take any steps either to send them back or call upon 
them to redeem themselves. TI make it clear to them, however, 
that, unless they redeem themselves, if they return to their 
chiefdoms they will be regarded as slaves; this is necessary, 
otherwise they are prone to entice others to run away. Such 
cases, however, are comparatively rare in this Protectorate : 
as a rule, if slaves run away they go to their relatives who 
are willing to redeem them. (iv) Impress upon chiefs and 
masters generally the necessity of treating their slaves well 
and allowing them a fixed number of days a week to work 
for themselves *’ 
Position in other West African Colonies. 
L will now compare the position in Sierra Leone with that ir 
the Gold Coast, N igeria, the Gambia, and French West Africa. 
Gold Coast.—All slaves were, as from 5th November, 1874, ¢‘ declared 
free persons to all intents and purposes by the Gold Coast 
Emancipation Ordinance No. 2 of 1874, though there was a proviso 
that ‘* except in so far as inconsistent with this Ordinance and 
with the Gold Coast Slave-dealing Abolition Ordinance, nothing 
herein contained shall be construed to diminish or derogate from 
the rights and obligations of parents and of children, or from other 
rights and obligations not being repugnant to the law of England, 
arising out of the family and tribal relations customarily used 
and observed in the Protected Territories ’* 
I see that on page 37 of The Dual Mandate in British Tropical 
Africa (1920) Sir Frederick Liugard asserts that ‘°° domestic slavery 
still exists in the Gold Coast Colony,” and in his evidence before 
the West African Lands Committee the late Mr. F. Crowther. 
Secretary of Native Affairs in the Gold Coast. said — 
*“ There is (in the Gold Coast) what is sometimes called 
domestic slavery, but domestic slaves are usually the 
descendants of captured or stray Mohammedans, or people 
from the north, and they are free for all general purvoses and 
‘hey can get land from the community. 
* They are more like adopted children, I should say. There 
are certain cases of people, captured 30 or 40 years ago in 
the wars, who have more or less settled and who live under 
the protection of one of the larger families. They have 
personal names by which you can identify them as slaves and 
that 19 shout all