African Institution

The African Institution was founded in 1807 after British abolitionists succeeded in ending the slave trade based in the United Kingdom. The Institution was formed to succeed where the former Sierra Leone Company had failed—to create a viable, civilized refuge for freed slaves in Sierra Leone, Africa.

Where the Sierra Leone Company sought first to convert the native population through evangelism, the African Institution aimed to improve the standard of living in Freetown first. Rules and regulations were proposed at its first meeting on 14 April 1807. One aspect of its purpose was to repair the wrongs which the native Africans had suffered in their intercourse with Europeans.

The leaders of the African Institution were James Stephen and William Wilberforce. The Duke of Gloucester, nephew of King George III, acted as the Institution's first president, and was joined by clergymen and aristocrats. Leading Quaker families also became supporters.

The Institution showed close interest in working with Paul Cuffe, an African-American entrepreneur. In 1810–1 they approached the British government, requesting a land grant in Sierra Leone for him.

The African merchants of Freetown, Sierra Leone, were however prevented from getting ahead, by the tight monopoly which the British merchant company Macaulay and Babington held over the Sierra Leone trade. On 7 April 1811 Cuffe met with the foremost black merchants of the colony, including the successful John Kizell. They penned a petition to the African Institution, stating that the colony's greatest needs were for settlers to work in agriculture, commerce and whaling; and that these three areas would facilitate growth for the colony best. Upon receiving this petition, the members of the Institution agreed with their findings. Cuffe and these merchants together founded the Friendly Society of Sierra Leone, a local mutual-aid merchant group dedicated to furthering prosperity and industry among the free peoples in the colony and loosening the stranglehold that English merchants held on trade.

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