Treaty Between Great Britain and Lagos, 1 January 1852

The Treaty Between Great Britain and Lagos, 1 January 1852 was an agreement between the United Kingdom (represented by Commodore Henry William Bruce, Commander of the British Navy's West Africa Station and John Beecroft, British Consul in the Bights of Benin and Biafra) and Oba Akitoye, the newly installed Oba of Lagos.

In Britain's early 19th century fight against the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade, its West Africa Squadron, or Preventative Squadron as it was also known, continued to pursue Portuguese, American, French, and Cuban slave ships and to impose anti-slavery treaties with West African coastal chiefs with so much doggedness that they created a strong presence along the West African coast from Sierra Leone all the way to the Niger Delta (today's Nigeria) and as far south as Congo. In 1849, Britain appointed John Beecroft Consul of the Bights of Benin and Biafra, a position he held (along with his governorship of Fernando Pó) until his death in 1854. At the time of Beecroft's appointment, the Kingdom of Lagos under Oba Kosoko was in the western part of the Consulate of the Bights of Benin and Biafra and was a key slave trading port. In 1851 and with pressure from liberated slaves who now wielded political and business influence, Britain intervened in Lagos in what is now known as the Bombardment of Lagos (or Reduction of Lagos). The British installed Oba Akitoye, ousted Oba Kosoko, and signed a treaty on January 1, 1852 between Great Britain and Lagos that outlawed the slave trade, ushering in the consular period in Lagos' history, wherein Britain provided military protection to Lagos.

The text of the Lagos Treaty of 1852 is transcribed below:

Commodore Henry William Bruce, Commander-in-Chief of Her Majesty’s ships and vessels on the West Coast of Africa, and John Beecroft, Esquire. Her Majesty's Consul in the Bights of Benin and Biafra, on the part of her Majesty the Queen of England, and the King and Chiefs of Lagos and of the neighbourhood, on the part of themselves and of their country, have agreed upon the following Articles and Conditions:

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