Bunce (Bance) Island and Fort, Sierra Leone, 1727
Caption: The North-west Prospect of Bense [sic] Island on the River Sierra-Leone. Also, referred to variously as Bence, Bense, Bance, the island is situated in the Sierra Leone river, near Freetown. It was important to the British slave trade in the mid 18th century. Smith, a surveyor, was hired by the Royal African Company in 1726 to survey its forts in West Africa. The caption provides some details on the factory, its location, and the naming of Sierra Leone; the chief trade of these parts are slaves, ivory, and camwood. See also image mariners18. Another view of the island is shown in an 1805 watercolor held by the National Maritime Museum (Greenwich). For a description of British slave trading activities and the island's importance in the mid-18th century, see Sean M. Kelley, The Voyage of the Slave Ship Hare (The University of North Carolina Press, 2016), passim.
Image Title
Bunce (Bance) Island and Fort, Sierra Leone, 1727
RegID
SI-OB-94
Date
1727
Title
Bunce (Bance) Island and Fort, Sierra Leone, 1727
Source
William Smith, Thirty different drafts of Guinea (London, 1727), plate 7.
Language
English
Item sets
European Forts & Trading Posts in Africa
Spatial Coverage
Africa--Rivers--Bunce Island
Reproduced In
William Smith, Thirty different drafts of Guinea (London, 1727), plate 7.
Researchers
Handler, Jerome; Tuite, Michael; Randall Ericson; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May
Last Updated
5-Jul-17
Identifier
mariners17