Mary Perth (c. 1740–1813+) was an

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

colonist and businesswoman in

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

. She was a

Nova Scotian Settler 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 Colony and Protectorate, Sierra Le ...

. With her husband, Caesar Perth, she came to Nova Scotia in 1783. She subsequently emigrated from Nova Scotia to

Freetown Freetown () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, e ...

in 1792. She was widowed in 1793. She was one of the six first (and one of three women) of the colonisers who was given a trading license in 1794. She managed an inn, selling retail goods in her shop, renting out rooms, and serving food in companionship with the

Sierra Leone Company The Sierra Leone Company was the corporate body involved in founding the Freetown, second British colony in Africa on 11 March 1792 through the resettlement of Black Loyalists who had initially been settled in Nova Scotia (the Nova Scotian Settler ...

. She became a substantial and wealthy businessperson in Freetown. She had an important place in the Methodist congregation in Freetown. In 1794, governor

Zachary Macaulay Zachary Macaulay (; 2 May 1768 – 13 May 1838) was a Scottish statistician and abolitionist who was a founder of London University and of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, and a Governor of British Sierra Leone. Early life Macaulay wa ...

appointed her housekeeper of the governor's residence and the caregiver of his 24 African foster children and their school. When Zachary Macaulay returned to England in 1799, she accompanied him to care for the children, at the African Academy,

Clapham Clapham () is a district in south London, south west London, England, lying mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, but with some areas (including Clapham Common) extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. History Ea ...

, London. She returned to Freetown in 1801, where she resumed her business activity.

References

* Mary Louise Clifford,
From Slavery to Freetown: Black Loyalists After the American Revolution
' 1740s births 18th-century African-American people 18th-century African-American women 1813 deaths Nova Scotian Settlers 18th-century American slaves 18th-century American businesswomen 18th-century American businesspeople 19th-century American businesswomen 19th-century Sierra Leonean people 18th-century Sierra Leonean people 18th-century African businesspeople 19th-century African businesspeople Sierra Leone Creole people {{AfricanAmerican-stub