The capital of Sierra Leone, Freetown is also the chief port and largest city of that West African country. The city lies on a rocky peninsula, at the edge of a range of hills. Its name refers to its origin in the 1700s as a home for freed slaves.

Places of interest

Among Freetown's government buildings is the State House, which was built in 1796 and is now the residence of the president. It stands near the House of Representatives on Tower Hill. Freetown is the nation's cultural and educational center. It is the site of the University of Sierra Leone and other schools. The National Museum, housed in the former Cotton Tree Railroad Station, displays historical documents and traditional sculptures. The city's Anglican cathedral dates to 1852. The bustling King Jimmy market operates on the site where Freetown's early settlers landed.

Economy

The nation's economy depends on commerce and transportation at Freetown. Its excellent natural harbor has deepwater docking facilities. As a result, the port is a major source of money and jobs. Cargo ships depart with minerals, including diamonds and a titanium ore called rutile. Other ships load up with cocoa, coffee, and other food products.

Government offices, banks, schools, and numerous small businesses provide important services and thousands of jobs. The city's factories process foods and make various small products.

History

African peoples have lived in the area around Freetown for thousands of years. The coast has been known to Europeans since 1462, when it was explored by the Portuguese navigator Pedro da Sintra. In 1787, an English anti-slavery activist named Granville Sharp picked Sierra Leone as a place where England's free African people, then mostly poor, could go to make better lives for themselves.

In the early 1790s, Sharp's work was taken over by the Sierra Leone Company. Settlers sent by the company founded Freetown in 1792. The company helped bring in from Nova Scotia many former slaves who had been given their freedom in return for supporting the British in the American Revolution. Runaway slaves from Jamaica were also brought to the colony. So were Africans rescued from slave ships that were captured by the British Navy on their way to the New World. The descendants of these resettled people are known as Creoles. They are now outnumbered by Mende and Temne people who came from the interior of the country.

Between 1821 and 1874, Freetown served as the capital of all of Great Britain's West Africa possessions. Freetown's harbor served as a British naval base during World War II (1939–45).When Sierra Leone gained its independence in 1961, Freetown at last became the capital of a free country.

From the 1960s to the 1980s, the city saw many violent protests, military takeovers, and other disturbances. In the late 1990s Freetown was the scene of particularly fierce violence during a civil war that raged in the country. Attempting to restore order to the city, the United Nations sent in British and African soldiers in 1999, but fighting continued. Population (1999 estimate), 822,000.