Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part One Trade and Politics in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
- 1 West Africa and the United States in Historical Perspective
- 2 The U.S. Consulate and the Promotion of Trade in Sierra Leone, 1850–80
- 3 Stranded Families: Free Colored Responses to Liberian Colonization and the Formation of Black Families in Nineteenth-Century Richmond, Virginia
- 4 The Garvey Aftermath: The Fall, Rise, and Fall
- 5 Economic Relations between Nigeria and the United States in the Era of British Colonial Rule, ca. 1900–1950
- 6 The United States' Economic and Political Activities in Colonial West Africa
- Part Two Forging Cultural Connections: America in Africa
- Part Three Forging Cultural Connections: Africa in America
- Part Four U.S. Political and Economic Interests in West Africa
- Part Five Looking toward the Future: U.S.–West African Linkages in the Twenty-first Century
- List of Contributors
- Index
- Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora
2 - The U.S. Consulate and the Promotion of Trade in Sierra Leone, 1850–80
from Part One - Trade and Politics in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part One Trade and Politics in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
- 1 West Africa and the United States in Historical Perspective
- 2 The U.S. Consulate and the Promotion of Trade in Sierra Leone, 1850–80
- 3 Stranded Families: Free Colored Responses to Liberian Colonization and the Formation of Black Families in Nineteenth-Century Richmond, Virginia
- 4 The Garvey Aftermath: The Fall, Rise, and Fall
- 5 Economic Relations between Nigeria and the United States in the Era of British Colonial Rule, ca. 1900–1950
- 6 The United States' Economic and Political Activities in Colonial West Africa
- Part Two Forging Cultural Connections: America in Africa
- Part Three Forging Cultural Connections: Africa in America
- Part Four U.S. Political and Economic Interests in West Africa
- Part Five Looking toward the Future: U.S.–West African Linkages in the Twenty-first Century
- List of Contributors
- Index
- Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora
Summary
The establishment of a U.S. consulate in Freetown in 1858 and the official recognition of American commercial interests by the Department of State clearly underlined the commercial and strategic importance of Sierra Leone along the West African coast by the mid-nineteenth century. The U.S. government, cognizant of that viable and potential market and at the insistence of several prominent New England merchants, officially appointed John E. Taylor to serve as the first American commercial agent to Sierra Leone, a post in which he served from 1858 to 1866.
As commercial agent, John Taylor was primarily responsible for promoting and protecting U.S. commercial interests in Sierra Leone. The American naval vessels that were present in the area were under orders to use force if necessary to expand American commercial interests in West Africa. The secretary of the navy made this objective clearly known to the president of the United States:
The lack of such a force has enabled the English to exclude us from the most valuable part of the trade of the Gambia and Sierra Leone, and the French to exclude us entirely from Senegal.
The American consulate, which was based in Freetown from 1858 to 1915 and later moved to Dakar, Senegal (where it was based from 1915 to 1931), played a vital role in the expansion of American commercial interests in Sierra Leone and along the West African coast.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The United States and West AfricaInteractions and Relations, pp. 38 - 60Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2008