"I am an American…but today, I am something
more. I am an African too. I feel my roots here
in this continent" Colin Powell - After
visiting Bunce Island, April 1992
BUNCE
ISLAND: LEGACY OF THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE
INDUSTRY
By
David J. Saunders
 Bunce
Island, which was established as a major slave
trading fortress and castle in 1670, is locate
approximately twenty miles upriver in the Freetown
Harbor on the Sierra Leone River. Bunce Island is a
small piece of land measuring just 1700 feet long
and 300 feet wide. Its strategic importance was
that it was the last navigable point for Ocean
going ships of the slave trade which made it
advantageous for trade and defensive purposes.
Today Bunce Island is in ruins, and it is very
difficult to see the fort from a distance. Vines
and other tropical vegetation have grown over the
ruins and in crevices in the halls of the stone
buildings.
Cannons dating
to the reign of King Richard the Third (1795-1796)
are still lying along the fortification wall and on
the beach below. However, the walls of the building
that used to house the slaves and the slave traders
are still standing. One can also see the remains of
the various towers on which guards posted kept
watch by day and night. In addition, the well from
which slave traders fetched water, and which is the
oldest feature on the island is still present
today. Tombstones marking the burial sites of both
Europeans and Africans in the cemeteries are also
still clearly visible.
Bunce Island's
early history dates from 1670 to 1728. During this
period, two companies operated the fort one after
the other. The Gambia Adventurers and the Royal
African Company of England. This period did not
witness a boom in commercial activity, but the fort
was kept mainly as a symbol of England's presence
in this particular region of Africa, than for
commercial purposes. As a result, both companies
were heavily subsidized by the government of
Britain. The fort's early period ended in 1728,
when in addition to the economic problems being
faced by the slave traders, it was attacked and
plundered by an Afro-Portuguese leader Don Jose
Lopez da Moura. During the period 1744 to 1807, the
fort became financially successful when it came
under private management. The London based firms of
Grants, Oswald and Sargent, and the firm of John
and Alexander Anderson were the companies that
turned the Bunce Island into an economic success
story.
Did
You Know?, This story by David Saunders anked
in the Top 3 out of 198.000 entries in a Google
Search, August 2006, second only to Sierra Leone's
own website. How's that for performance? Click on
search sample below for more information on the
country. Continued below.
Bunce Island was
not intended to function as a major source of
slaves but nevertheless thousands passed through
its fort. The island attained importance in the
1750s when rice cultivation skyrocketed in South
Carolina and Georgia in the American colonies.
European settlers had little experience with rice
cultivation and were not suited for the climate.
The demand for slaves with rice growing skills
increased and Bunce Island became a center
specializing in procuring slaves with this unique
skill. Thus, the volume of slaves from the
"windward coast" or "rice coast' of West Africa
increased. Slaves taken from the Sene-Gambia,
Sierra Leone and Liberia found their way through
Bunce Island before being transported to the rice
plantations of South Carolina and
Georgia.
Bunce Island did
have a rich and varied military history. During its
entire existence, it was attacked six times, four
times by French Naval Forces and twice by pirates.
During these attacks the island was always
vandalized and sometimes burnt down. It was rebuilt
after each attack and the present fort is the
fourth one on the same site, and was rebuilt in
1795-1796 after the 1794 attack by the French Naval
Forces during the Revolutionary wars. Bunce Island
was, together with the Province of Freedom, a
settlement established in 1787 for freed slaves,
destroyed in 1794. Freetown was subsequently
established in 1807 and soon thereafter slavery was
prohibited. Interestingly, when the Bill
prohibiting the slave trade was being debated, the
owners at that time, John and Alexander Anderson,
were among those who petitioned Parliament not to
end the slave trade. But the Bill was finally
passed in 1807, thus rendering it illegal for the
slave traders to continue their nefarious
operations on the island.
From 1807 to
1845, after the prohibition was passed, the owners
of Bunce Island tried to sell their fort to the
Crown Colony, but their effort was refused. They
also attempted to establish a cotton plantation but
that too did not thrive. In fact, in 1809, Bunce
Island's large African workforce, now out of jobs,
rioted and the authorities in Freetown had to send
troops to quell the rebellion. Other attempts at
transforming Bunce Island into a recruiting station
for Africans into the West African regiments, and
later into a sawmill and trading post did not
succeed. Bunce Island was finally abandoned around
1830 and was declared Sierra Leone's first
officially protected historic site in 1848, under
the Monuments and Relics Act of
1947.
The recent
history of Bunce Island dates from 1948 to the
present. The expressed purpose of the historic site
designation was to preserve the island's legacy and
to educate Sierra Leoneans of its importance in the
Atlantic Slave Trade era. However, public awareness
of Bunce Island heightened only in 1989, when
thirteen Gullahs came to Sierra Leone for a "Home
Coming Visit". A film "Family Across The Sea' was
made soon thereafter. It was also in 1989 that the
attention of U.S. National Park Service was drawn
to Bunce Island. They sent a three man team to
survey and give detailed recommendations for the
preservation of Bunce Island. The team completed
its mission and in 1992, the Deputy Director of the
Park Service came to Sierra Leone, and announced a
five million dollar restoration package for the
Bunce Island Preservation Programme. This project
unfortunately collapsed because there was a change
in the government of Sierra Leone and the new
leadership didn't make the necessary
follow-up.
In
February-March 1997, Mary Moran an African-American
and her family came to Sierra Leone to be reunited
with Baindu Jabati, their long lost relative whose
family used to bury their dead with a song that
Mary Moran's family have retained in America for
three generations. A film, "The Language You Cry
In" has been made as a result of that visit. In
1995, the European Union through the National
Authorizing Office provided funds to an indigenous
group to sensitize Sierra Leoneans and other
nationals about the importance of Bunce Island and
the "Gullah Connection" in the history of Sierra
Leone.
The project has
now been put under the trusteeship of the National
Tourist Board of Sierra Leone to continue what the
association started. Visitors are encouraged to
donate generously to the Bunce Island Fund, jointly
operated by the Monuments and Relics Commission and
the National Tourist Board. Proceeds from the fund
would be used for preservation and conservation
efforts on the island. For more information about
Bunce Island in Sierra Leone and how you can
contribute to the restoration and conservation fund
please write an e-mail message to ntb@sierratel.sl.
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