Abolition

After Britain passed the 1807 Abolition of the Slave Trade Act, the Royal Navy turned from participator in slavery to enforcer of the Act with up to a third of its ships being assigned to intercept slave vessels and free their captives.

In 1821 a young boy was on a Portuguese vessel being taken to the West Indies. Henry Leeke was captain of the Royal Navy ship, the Myrmiddon. He, with his crew, boarded the Portuguese ship and rescued the captives. They were taken to Sierra Leone where a colony for freed slaves had been set up by abolitionists in the late eighteenth century. One of those rescued was a young boy Adjai who went on to become a Christian and took the name Samuel Crowther.

Samuel went on to be the first student at Fourah Bay Collegem, the precursor to the University of Sierra Leone. He worked closely with the Church Mission Society and entered the church in 1843.

Samuel Crowther's work with the Church Mission Society brought him to the attention of the hierarchy within the church and in 1864 on St Peter's day, he became Africa's first black bishop. The ceremony took place at Canterbury Cathedral and one of those in attendance was Captain Henry Leeke.

Pictures of Bishop Samuel Crowther supplied courtesy of the Church Mission Society.
Royal Navy pictures supplied by the Royal Naval Museum, Porstmouth.