Abolition and Empire in Sierra Leone and Liberia

Anti-slavery colonies - settlements for freed slaves that were intended to prevent the slave trade in West Africa - were established by both American and British societies. Although they occasionally attempted to work together in support of these settlements and their anti-slave trade goals, the societies were more frequently in conflict. Looking for the origin of this Anglo-American rivalry, this book applies a comparative approach to freed slave settlers in Sierra Leone and Liberia. It examines the foundations of these societies, their contribution to the development of 'Civilization, Commerce, and Christianity' as a practical approach to anti-slavery interventions in West Africa, and the points of conflict between them that fed rivalries in America and Britain.

BRONWEN EVERILL is Assistant Professor of Global History at Warwick University. She completed her PhD at King's College London and held a research fellowship at Oxford University. Her teaching and research focus on the history of imperial humanitarianism in Africa.