Sherbro Tuckers

The Tuckers of Sherbro are an Afro-European clan from the Southern region of Sierra Leone. The clans progenitors were an English trader and agent, John Tucker, and a Sherbro princess. Starting in the 17th Century, the Tuckers ruled over one of the most powerful chiefdoms in the Sherbro country of Southern Sierra Leone, centered on the village of Gbap.

In the 1620s, England had a number of agents in the Sherbro region of Sierra Leone; these traders were looking for camwood, ivory, and other such items, and traded with the locals. They were also looking for slaves to fulfill a growing demand for slave labor in the West. In the late 17th century, the Gambia Adventurers and the Royal African Company began sending many agents to the region. In 1665, an agent in the service of the Gambia Adventurers called John Tucker left England and went to Sierra Leone alongside Zachary Rogers (progenitor of the Afro-European clan the Rogers). Upon arriving in Sherbro Country, John Tucker and Zachary Rogers took the daughters of a Sherbro chief as their wives as was customary in order to gain trading rights in the region. Multiple children were born to these unions.

Being a matrilineal society, the descendants of John Tucker were able to maintain claims to the chieftaincy throne. The children of John Tucker and the Sherbro princess gained control of their mother's kingdom and utilised their father's name. Politically, the Tuckers would become one of the most influential and prominent Sherbro families during the 17th and 18th centuries, and were able to expand their powerful chiefdom into other territories. Although they maintained European connections (some of them going to England to attend school), they remained thoroughly 'Africanised' taking part in local cultural institutions such as the Poro Society. It was only through such local institutions that they were able to gain control over more territory.

Besides maintaining claims to chieftaincy, some Tucker descendants became powerful traders and middlemen between African and European business interests. Their strong ties to European culture and language helped them expand their influence over the Sherbro trade industry. Particularly in the Southern Sierra Leone slave trade, members of Afro-European clans such as the Rogers, the Caulkers, and the Tuckers played an integral role as middlemen, allowing them to accumulate material wealth as an emergent merchant class. In the wake of abolishment of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and the colonization over the Sierra Leone hinterland by the British, the Sherbro region would lose economic importance as colonial interest became concentrated in the capital, Freetown.

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