Timeline of Freetown

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Freetown, Sierra Leone.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

Prior to 19th century

• 1787
  • 9 May: Settlers arrive from Portsmouth, England.^[1]
  • Granville Town, Province of Freedom established by the London-based Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor.
• 1789 - Granville Town burned down.
• 1792 - Freetown established by black American ex-slaves (called the Nova Scotian Settlers) under the auspices of the Sierra Leone Company.^[1]
• 1794 - September: Settler Town attacked by French.^[1]

19th century

Freetown, 1803

• 1800
  • September: Rebellion of Nova Scotian Settlers.^[2]
  • Jamaican Maroon settlers arrive.^[1][3]
• 1805 - Martello Tower built.
• 1808
  • Freetown settlement becomes a British crown colony.^[4]
  • "Slavers court" established.^[1]
• 1811 - Population: 1,900.^[5]
• 1812 - Wilberforce suburb founded for Liberated Africans."^[1]
• 1816 - Krootown established.^[6]
• 1822
  • Rawdon Street Methodist Church built.^[2][7]
  • Population: 4,785.^[8]
• 1827 - Fourah Bay College established.
• 1828 - St. George's Cathedral, Freetown built.
• 1830s - Foulah Town Mosque built.
• 1845
  • Church Mission Society Grammar School founded.^[9]
  • John Ezzidio becomes mayor.
• 1846 - Cline Town established.^[10]
• 1847 - Female Institution (school) founded.^[9]
• 1853 - Inhabitants become "British subjects."
• 1865 - Samuel Lewis becomes mayor.
• 1866 - St. Edward's Primary School founed.
• 1867 - Government Wharf built.^[1]
• 1872 - Pope Hennessy Day festival begins.^[11]
• 1873 - Independent newspaper begins publication.^[12]
• 1874 - Wesleyan High School for Boys opens.^[13]
• 1875 - West African Reporter newspaper begins publication.^[14]
• 1884
  • Sierra Leone Weekly News begins publication.^[12]
  • Leopold Educational Institute opens.
  • Fire.^[10]
• 1891 - Population: 30,033.^[15]
• 1893 - Town attains city status;^[1] Freetown City Council established.^[16]
• 1895 - Governor's residence built.
• 1898 - Bank of British West Africa branch^[17] and ice factory^[18] established.
• 1899 - Songo Town-Freetown railway begins operating.^[18]

20th century

• 1904
  • John Henry Malamah Thomas becomes mayor.
  • Albert Academy founded.
• 1905
  • Madrasa Islamia active.^[19]
  • Lisk-Carew photo studio in business.^[20]
• 1918 - Population: 34,000 (approximate).^[21]
• 1919 - July: Strike and anti-Syrian riot.^[22]
• 1922 - St. Edward's Secondary School founded.
• 1923 - Girls' Industrial and Technical Training School established.^[23]
• 1925 - Prince of Wales School founded.
• 1926
  • January: Railway strike.^[16]
  • December: City Council dissolved; Municipal Board established.^[16]
• 1928 - East End Lions Football Club formed.
• 1930 - Women granted right to vote.^[23]
• 1932
  • Muslim Congress created.^[24]
  • Sierra Leone Daily Mail newspaper begins publication.^[12]
• 1938
  • West African Youth League and League of Coloured Peoples branch headquartered in Freetown.^[5][23]
  • Freetown Secondary School for Girls established.^[25]
• 1948
  • Eustace Henry Taylor Cummings becomes mayor.
  • Population: 64,576.^[1]
• 1953 - Deep Water Quay construction begins.
• 1961 - City becomes capital of Commonwealth realm of Sierra Leone.^[4]
• 1962 - Siaka Stevens becomes mayor.
• 1964 - Bank of Sierra Leone headquartered in city.
• 1965 - Sierra Leone Port Authority established.^[26]
• 1966 - Constance Cummings-John becomes mayor.
• 1971 - City becomes capital of the Republic of Sierra Leone.
• 1977 - Ode-lay Society (social club) formed.^[27]
• 1980 - Siaka Stevens Stadium opens.
• 1983 - For Di People newspaper begins publication.

1990s

• 1990 - Population: 529,000 (urban agglomeration).^[28]
• 1995 - Population: 603,000 (urban agglomeration).^[28]
• 1996 - Freetown/New Haven Sister Cities established.^[29]
• 1997
  • 25 March: "Rebels move into Freetown;"^[5] prisoners freed from the Pademba Road prison.
  • 30 May: Foreigners evacuated.^[30]
  • 2 June: AFRC conflict.
• 1998
  • February: "Ecomog storms Freetown and drives rebels out."^[4]
  • Kabbah returns to Freetown.^[4]
• 1999
  • January: City besieged by Armed Forces Revolutionary Council/Revolutionary United Front.^[5]
  • November: United Nations troops arrive.^[5]

21st century

Freetown, 2009

• 2000
  • 2 May: City Hotel burns down.^[31]
  • 8 May: Peace demonstration.^[25]
  • Center for Media, Technology and Education established.^[32]
  • Population: 688,000 (urban agglomeration).^[28]
• 2002
  • Sierra Leone Civil War ends.
  • Special Court for Sierra Leone and Kallon Football Club established.
• 2003 - 14 April: Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Sierra Leone) convenes.^[5]
• 2004
  • Winstanley Bankole Johnson becomes mayor.
  • Population: 772,873.
• 2005 - Njala University College established.^[32]
• 2010 - Population: 945,423.^[33]
• 2012
  • Cholera epidemic.^[34]
  • Sam Franklyn Gibson becomes mayor.

See also

• Freetown history
• Schools in Freetown
• List of mayors of Freetown
• History of Sierra Leone

References

1. H. Reginald Jarrett (1956). "Some Aspects of the Urban Geography of Freetown, Sierra Leone". Geographical Review 46. JSTOR 211884.
2. James W. St. G. Walker (1992), The Black loyalists: the search for a promised land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone, 1783-1870, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, ISBN 0802074022
3. John Wesley Z. Kurewa (2010), "Methodism in Africa", in Charles Yrigoyen, T&T Clark companion to Methodism, London: T&T Clark, ISBN 9780567032935
4. "Sierra Leone Profile: Timeline". BBC News. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
5. Magbaily C. Fyle (2006). "Chronology". Historical Dictionary of Sierra Leone. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-6504-4.
6. "Sierra Leone". Proceedings of the Royal Colonial Institute 13. London. 1882.
7. Adrian Hastings (1995), The Church in Africa, 1450-1950, Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780198269212
8. Jedidiah Morse; Richard C. Morse (1823), "Freetown", A New Universal Gazetteer (4th ed.), New Haven: S. Converse
9. Filomena Steady (2006). "Women's Associations and Female Education in Sierra Leone". In Mac Dixon-Fyle and Gibril Cole. New Perspectives on the Sierra Leone Krio. Peter Lang. pp. 267–286. ISBN 978-0-8204-7937-8.
10. Odile Goerg (1998). "From Hill Station (Freetown) to Downtown Conakry (First Ward): Comparing French and British Approaches to Segregation in Colonial Cities at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century". Canadian Journal of African Studies 32.
11. Odile Goerg (2002). "Between Everyday Life and Exception: Celebrating Pope Hennessy Day in Freetown, 1872-c.1905". Journal of African Cultural Studies 15. JSTOR 3181409.
12. "Freetown (Sierra Leone) Newspapers". WorldCat. USA: Online Computer Library Center. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
13. J.J. Crooks (1903). A history of the colony of Sierra Leone, Western Africa. Dublin: Browne and Nolan.
14. Gustav Kashope Deveneaux (1976). "Public Opinion and Colonial Policy in Nineteenth-Century Sierra Leone". International Journal of African Historical Studies 9.
15. Michael Banton (1956). "Adaptation and Integration in the Social System of Temne Immigrants in Freetown". Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 26. JSTOR 1156673.
16. Akintola J. G. Wyse (1987). "The Dissolution of Freetown City Council in 1926: A Negative Example of Political Apprenticeship in Colonial Sierra Leone". Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 57. JSTOR 1159892.
17. Glyn Davies; Roy Davies (2002). "Comparative Chronology of Money" – via University of Exeter.
18. "Sierra Leone: Report for 1899". Annual Colonial Reports (London) 299. 1900.
19. L. Proudfoot (1959). "Mosque-Building and Tribal Separatism in Freetown East". Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 29.
20. Erika Nimis (2005). Photographes d'Afrique de l'Ouest: l'expérience yoruba (in French). Éditions Karthala. ISBN 978-2-84586-691-1.
21. Harold Michell (1919), An introduction to the geography of Sierra Leone, London: Waterlow and Sons, OCLC 10455682
22. Ibrahim Abdullah (1994). "Rethinking the Freetown Crowd: The Moral Economy of the 1919 Strikes and Riot in Sierra Leone". Canadian Journal of African Studies 28.
23. LaRay Denzer (1987). "Women in Freetown Politics, 1914-61: A Preliminary Study". Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 57.
24. L. Proudfoot (1961). "Towards Muslim Solidarity in Freetown". Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 31. JSTOR 1158102.
25. Magbaily C. Fyle (2006). Historical Dictionary of Sierra Leone. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-6504-4.
26. David Fashole Luke (1985). "Dock Workers of the Port of Freetown: A Case Study of African Working-Class Ambivalence". Canadian Journal of African Studies 19. JSTOR 484515.
27. "Guinea Coast, 1900 A.D.–present: Key Events". Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved August 2015.
28. "The State of African Cities 2010: Governance, Inequalities and Urban Land Markets". United Nations Human Settlements Programme. 2010.
29. "The View from / New Haven: Making a Connection With Sierra Leone". New York Times. 25 June 2000. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
30. "U.S. Marines Evacuate 900 In Freetown". New York Times. 31 May 1997. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
31. "Freetown Journal; The Walls of a Ruin Talk of History and Heartache". New York Times. 26 June 2000. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
32. "Sierra Leone". Africa South of the Sahara. USA: Stanford University. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
33. "Population of capital cities and cities of 100,000 or more inhabitants". Demographic Yearbook 2011. United Nations Statistics Division. 2012. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
34. "Cholera Epidemic Envelops Coastal Slums in West Africa". New York Times. 22 August 2012. Retrieved 8 June 2013.

Further reading

Published in the 19th century

• Josiah Conder (1830), "Freetown", The Modern Traveller, London: J.Duncan
• "Sierra Leone". Street's Indian and Colonial Mercantile Directory for 1870. London: G.Street. 1870.

Published in the 20th century

• "Freetown", Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th ed.), New York, 1910, OCLC 14782424
• H. R. Jarrett. The Port and Town of Freetown, Geography, Vol. 40, 1955, pp. 108–118.
• Michael Banton. West African City: A Study of Tribal Life in Freetown. London: Oxford University, 1957.
• Christopher Fyfe; E. Jones, eds. (1968). Freetown, A Symposium. Freetown.
• Milton Harvey (1968). "Implications of migration to Freetown: A study of the relationship between migrants, housing and occupation". Civilisations 18.
• John Nunley (1982). "Images and Printed Words in Freetown Masquerades". African Arts 15.
• Noelle Watson, ed. (1996). "Freetown". International Dictionary of Historic Places: Middle East and Africa. UK: Routledge. ISBN 1884964036.
• M.B. Gleave. "Port activities and the spatial structure of cities: the case of Freetown, Sierra Leone." Journal of Transport Geography 5.4 (1997): 257-275.
• P.E.H. Hair (1998). "Aspects of the Prehistory of Freetown and Creoledom". History in Africa 25.
• Alusine Jalloh (1998). "The Fula and the Motor Transport Business in Freetown, Sierra Leone". African Economic History 26.

Published in the 21st century

• Diane Frost (2002). "Diasporan West African Communities: The Kru in Freetown & Liverpool". Review of African Political Economy 29.
• Okwui Enwezor, ed. (2002). Under Siege: Four African Cities, Freetown, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Lagos. Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz. ISBN 978-3-7757-9090-1. Documenta11 + website
• Allen M. Howard (2003). "Contesting Commercial Space in Freetown, 1860-1930: Traders, Merchants, and Officials". Canadian Journal of African Studies 37.
• Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, ed. (2005). "Accra". Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 719. ISBN 978-0-19-517055-9.
• Gibril R. Cole (2008). "Rreligious plurality and economic sustainability: Muslim merchants in the colonial economy of 19th century Freetown". African Economic History 36.
• Kenneth Lynch et al. "Meeting the urban challenge? Urban agriculture and food security in post-conflict Freetown, Sierra Leone." Applied Geography (2012).
• Roy Maconachie, Tony Binns, and Paul Tengbe. "Urban farming associations, youth and food security in post-war Freetown, Sierra Leone." Cities 29.3 (2012): 192-200.
• Political Economy of the Urban Water-Pricing Regime in Freetown, Sierra Leone, London: Overseas Development Institute, 2012 – via International Relations and Security Network

External links

• "(Articles related to Freetown)". Connecting-Africa. Leiden, Netherlands: African Studies Centre.
• Quintard Taylor (ed.), "Freetown, Sierra Leone", BlackPast.org