History Professor Involved in Improving Digital Access to Sierra Leone’s History and Heritage

A University of Worcester lecturer has helped ensure that records of national importance to the history and heritage of Sierra Leone, as well as to the global history of slavery, are preserved for future generations.

Professor of History, Suzanne Schwarz, was part of an international collaborative team that has digitised hundreds of volumes held by the Sierra Leone Public Archives. A new website, developed by Walk With Web, has now been launched which is open to all to explore.

The Public Archives in Freetown, Sierra Leone, in West Africa, is the official repository for the nation’s government documents, private papers, maps, photographs, and other materials of significant historical value. This year marks 60 years since the Sierra Leone Public Archives were formed in 1965.

Professor Schwarz has worked with the archival team at the Sierra Leone Public Archives since 2010. The work was funded by the Endangered Archives Programme (EAP), run by the British Library. Sierra Leonean archivists received specialist training and equipment to undertake the digitisation of the source material.

Since 2010, a series of funded projects have been digitising these records while also examining them in more depth. Professor Schwarz was Principal Investigator on two of these projects.

Professor Schwarz explained how, after British abolition of the trade in 1807, Britain sent out Royal Navy ships to intercept slave ships and as a result of that activity an estimated 100,000 enslaved Africans were disembarked at Freetown, where their names and other personal details were recorded in registers.

Professor Schwarz says that the Sierra Leone records are particularly important as they include the very first groups of enslaved Africans released in 1808.

You can access the Public Archives via the website.