Abolition's adolescence : apprenticeship as 'liberation' in Sierra Leone, 1808-1848

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Anderson, Richard (2022) Abolition's adolescence : apprenticeship as 'liberation' in Sierra Leone, 1808-1848. English Historical Review, 137 (586). pp. 763-793. ISSN 0013-8266 (https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/ceac117)

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Abstract

This article argues that apprenticeship in Sierra Leone was, primarily, an exploitative system that rested on the unremunerated labour of Liberated African youth and exacerbated the vulnerability of liberated children. Apprentice labour was integral to the growth of Freetown’s economy as an Atlantic port city. Unpaid child labour facilitated the growing prosperity of a select number of Freetown’s Nova Scotian, Maroon, European and, later, Liberated African merchants. At the same time, the very term apprentice concealed a spectrum of experiences, from mutually beneficial economic arrangements to conditions of violence and exploitation that were in many ways analogous to slavery. Youths whose liberation was highly coerced could, in certain cases, attain some sense of belonging through their periods of indenture in and around Freetown. Others, aware of their legal status and the terms of their indentures, sought redress for ill-treatment both through the colonial courts and by running away. Despite the asymmetries of power and the precariousness of youth torn away from their kin, apprentices as well as masters and governors shaped the indenture system.

ORCID iDs

Anderson, Richard ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0883-6032;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)