Sierra Leone’s Troubled Past
The written history of Sierra Leone and European contact began by the Portuguese explorer Pedro da Cintra in 1462. He gave the rocky Peninsula the name Sierra Leone, which translated into Lion Mountains. Freetown, which was one of Sierra Leone’s first civilizations, was the name given to the first town in Sierra Leone. Some of the people that were transported into this town were discharged blacks from the military, freed slaves of England, and sometimes runaway slaves that were caught. You could say that Lord Chief Justice Mansfield was one of the reasons for freeing poor black men. For instance, James Somerset was a runaway slave that had been captured. Lord Mansfield said, “The state of slavery is of such nature, that it is incapable of being introduced on any reasons, moral or political, but only by positive law…Whatever inconveniences, therefore, may follow from the decision, I cannot this case is allowed or approved by the law of England; and therefore the black must be discharged” (1 Mansfield, 95-96.) By this decision, hundreds of slaves gained freedom and were sent to Freetown. A big part of Sierra Leone’s past was an eleven-year civil war caused by Conflict, or “Blood,” Diamonds and the RUF, Revolutionary United Front, which hurt the economy, common people, and the way of living in Sierra Leone.
In the beginning, Sierra Leone was not a place of corruption and war, but a place for the economy to try and expand to further help its country. Farming was and still is used as Sierra Leone’s primary source of income. Farming employed two-thirds of Sierra Leone’s work force and was also half of its GDP. Diamonds were also a major source of income for Sierra Leone’s economy. They were sometimes mined and sold illegally which deprived Sierra Leone of about $600 million a year in foreign exchange(Sierra Leone - Mining: Diamond Mining par. 1). Subsistence farming was practiced by some of the population but it was only used to grow...