Cline Town is an area inFreetown, Sierra Leone. The area is named for Emmanuel Kline, aHausa Liberated African who bought substantial property in the area. The neighborhood is in the vicinity of Granville Town, a settlement established in 1787 and re-established in 1789 prior to the founding of the Freetown settlement on 11 March 1792.
Granville Town, as Cline Town was known at the time, was established in 1787 by the London-basedCommittee for the Relief of the Black Poor. They arranged for the transport of London's so-called Black Poor to Sierra Leone where they were amongst its original settlers. Many of these Black Poor wereBlack Loyalists who had decided or were forced to leave the United States after theAmerican War of Independence; some came via several years inNova Scotia, anotherBritish North American colony and so are known asBlack Nova Scotians. All asserted aBritish identity. Some were formerlyWest Indian enslavedAfricans. Some British wives also were part of the settlement.[1] Granville Town (named for its benefactor and patronGranville Sharp) was established as the first town of the Province of Freedom before it was destroyed in 1789. The town was rebuilt in 1791 with the assistance ofAlexander Falconbridge, a former surgeon on a slave ship.[2]
This settlement differed from theFreetown Colony that was established on 11 March 1792 by theNova Scotian Settlers.[1] Although theNova Scotians established Freetown in 1792, theJamaican Maroons were settled in Granville Town in 1800 following their arrival from Nova Scotia. However, by 1800, the settlement had been largely abandoned following attacks byTemne tribesmen of the Koya Empire, and the Maroons were soon after moved to the Freetown settlement where they formed a district that would be known later asMaroon Town. SomeCreole families such as the Clarkes and Reeds (Reids) may be descendants of the Old Settlers.[1]
Simon Schama was interviewed about his bookRough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution, published by Ecco.