Cline Town is an area in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The area is named for Emmanuel Kline, a Hausa Liberated African who bought substantial property in the area. The neighborhood is in the vicinity of Granville Town, a settlement established in 1787 and re-established in 1789 prior to the founding of the Freetown settlement on 11 March 1792. Granville Town, as Cline Town was known at the time, was established in 1787 by the London-based

Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor The Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor was a charitable organisation founded in London in 1786 to provide sustenance for distressed people of African and Asian origin. It played a crucial role in the proposal to form Sierra Leone Colo ...

. They arranged for the transport of London's so-called Black Poor to Sierra Leone where they were amongst its original settlers. Many of these Black Poor were

Black Loyalist Black Loyalists were people of African descent who sided with Loyalists during the American Revolutionary War. In particular, the term referred to men enslaved by Patriots who served on the Loyalist side because of the Crown's guarantee of fr ...

s who had decided or were forced to leave the United States after the American War of Independence; some came via several years in

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

, another

British North America British North America comprised the colonial territories of the British Empire in North America from 1783 onwards. English colonisation of North America began in the 16th century in Newfoundland, then further south at Roanoke and Jamestown, ...

n colony and so are known as Black Nova Scotians. All asserted a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

identity. Some were formerly West Indian enslaved Africans. Some British wives also were part of the settlement.'' '' Granville Town (named for its benefactor and patron

Granville Sharp Granville Sharp (10 November 1735 – 6 July 1813) was an English scholar, philanthropist and one of the first campaigners for the Abolitionism in the United Kingdom, abolition of the slave trade in Britain. Born in Durham, England, Durham, he ...

) was established as the first town of the Province of Freedom before it was destroyed in 1789. The town was rebuilt in 1791 with the assistance of Alexander Falconbridge, a former surgeon on a slave ship. This settlement differed from the Freetown Colony that was established on 11 March 1792 by the

Nova Scotian Settlers The Nova Scotian Settlers, or Sierra Leone Settlers (also known as the Nova Scotians or more commonly as the Settlers), were Black Britons or Black Canadians who founded the settlement of Freetown, Sierra Leone and the Colony of Sierra Leone, ...

. Although the Nova Scotians established Freetown in 1792, the

Jamaican Maroons Jamaican Maroons descend from Africans who freed themselves from slavery in the Colony of Jamaica and established communities of Free black people in Jamaica, free black people in the island's mountainous interior, primarily in the eastern Pari ...

were settled in Granville Town in 1800 following their arrival from Nova Scotia. However, by 1800, the settlement had been largely abandoned following attacks by Temne tribesmen of the Koya Empire, and the Maroons were soon after moved to the Freetown settlement where they formed a district that would be known later as Maroon Town. Some Creole families such as the Clarkes and Reeds (Reids) may be descendants of the Old Settlers.

References

External links

* {{coord missing, Sierra Leone Neighbourhoods in Freetown Populated places established in 1787 1780s in Africa 18th century in Sierra Leone 1787 establishments in the British Empire