Commerce, Christianity and the Origins of the ‘Creoles’ of Fernando Po
During the early and middle years of the nineteenth century a Creole elite emerged on the island of Fernando Po. The origins of this lay in the fact that for the thirty years after 1827 the island was at the centre of European political and economic interests in the Gulf of Guinea. The short-lived British occupation of Fernando Po, 1827–34, established the town of Clarence and brought to the island a number of settlers, and in particular ‘liberated Africans’, freed from slave ships captured by the Royal Navy. The situation they faced in Clarence and the treatment they received, not least once the British government withdrew and a succession of British traders attempted to run the town, led to the emergence of a homogeneous society out of the various ethnic groups they comprised. This society was to be transformed by the development of a palm oil trade on the island, particularly during the 1840s. This led to the emergence of a group of middlemen between the Bubi producers of the interior and the European traders who collected oil from Clarence, and concurrently, to the stratification of Clarence society into a trading elite and a group of labourers and servants. This trading elite was attracted to the work of the Baptist Mission in Clarence after 1841, and in particular saw the value of the Mission in giving itself a distinct identity. Over time this elite and the Baptists drew apart, but this was not before the interrelation of social stratification with the work of the Mission had produced a class of Creoles whose descendants – the Fernandinos – still survive as a distinct group in Equatorial Guinea today.
The Mixed Commissions for the Suppression of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the Nineteenth Century
As a contribution to the history of Britain's campaign for the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in the nineteenth century this article examines, first, the creation of various mixed commissions for the adjudication of vessels captured on suspicion of trading in slaves after the trade had been declared illegal; secondly, the composition of these mixed commissions and the way in which they functioned, with special reference to the several commissions sitting in Sierra Leone which for 25 years dealt with the majority of captured slave vessels; and thirdly, the reasons why after 1839, and especially after 1845, captured ships were increasingly taken before British vice-admiralty courts with the result that the mixed commissions were gradually allowed to run down, although most of them were not abolished until the Atlantic slave trade had been finally suppressed.
The Republic of Liberia
The Republic of Liberia is one of those places that everyone has heard about, and that is about all. High school geography teaches us that Monrovia was named after President Monroe, that the original colony was founded by emancipated slaves from this country, and that the Firestone Company has rubber plantations there. During World War II American interest in the country increased; iirst, as a wartime base and a potential peace-time base in the South Atlantic, and secondly as a source of raw rubber. This paper attempts to discover the degree and nature of American interference in Liberian affairs. The "backward people" problem is becoming more and more important in contemporary international relations. Though the United States has traditionally been the "next-friend" of Liberia, our friendship has resulted in only one accomplishment-Liberia is still an independent state. It is doubtful whether this policy will be sufficient in the future.