BUNCE ISLAND – SIERRA LEONE
- 2 Min Read
Bunce Island is an island in the Sierra Leone River. It is situated in the estuary of the Rokel River and Port Loko Creek, about 20 miles (32 kilometres) upriver from Sierra Leone’s capital city, Freetown.
PHOTO CAPTION: Bunce Island. SOURCE: visitsierraleone.org
Bunce Island was a fortified trading post in the Sierra Leone River that played a central role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade from the late 1600s until the abolition of the British slave trade in 1807. It was established around 1670 by British companies, including the Royal African Company and the Gambia Adventurers, who built the fort to hold captives taken from the West African interior before sending them across the Atlantic.
Although Bunce Island was small in size, its location made it strategically important. Its position at the upper limit of navigation on the Sierra Leone River allowed slave traders to receive enslaved Africans brought by inland traders and then load them onto ships bound for plantations in the Americas, especially the rice plantations of South Carolina and Georgia, where slaves with rice-cultivation skills were highly valued.
After 1807, when the British Parliament outlawed the slave trade, Bunce Island ceased its role in the slave trade and was eventually abandoned around the 1840s. Today, the remaining ruins, including the old castle, slave yards, watchtowers, and tombstones, serve as a historical reminder of this painful chapter in African history and help scholars and visitors understand the island’s role in human exploitation.
