Freetown

Freetown was founded in 1787 as a home for freed Black poor from Britain, and grew through successive waves of freed Africans: Nova Scotians (1792), Jamaican Maroons (1800), and tens of thousands of Liberated Africans recaptured from slave ships by the Royal Navy West Africa Squadron between 1808 and 1864. Each group built their own quarter, their own church, and their own identity — together becoming the Krio people.

On your full-day city tour you will visit: the site of the fallen Cotton Tree (a 500-year-old silk-cotton tree that served as a gathering point for freed slaves), King's Yard Gate (the landing point for recaptive Africans), Old Fourah Bay College (the first university in sub-Saharan Africa, 1827), St. George's Cathedral, the National Museum, the Edward Wilmot Blyden statue, and Big Market (Freetown's oldest market).