Okoroafor 1st was rescued from slavery in 1816 by the British and resettled in Sierra Leone from Nigeria. His son John would within a generation become Headman of Regent Village, Freetown, Sierra Leone. He would later accompany Reverend E N Jones in the Niger Expedition of 1853.

His grandson Frederick Weeks Smart was educated at Fourah Bay College, Sierra Leone (affiliated to Durham University in 1876). He went as a missionary in the Niger Mission from 1868-1876. His journals are very literary and pleasing to read. They would almost have come out of a Victorian novel, and certainly bring to life the joys and struggles of a missionary in Africa, of which David Livingstone was well known.

Read about the accounts of domestic slavery and a description of a slave market in Nigeria as seen by Rev. Frederick Smart. Frederick’s twin brother Francis, became teacher of the Government School, Isle-de-Los (Guinea) 1870-1894.

Read about the fascinating success stories of his descendants, about their involvement in education, politics and medicine.

The book portrays the success story of an African rescued from slavery due to the Abolition of Slavery in the British Empire in 1807. As a result Britain enforced the Policy of Intervention and destruction of slave ships and the resettlement of the human “cargoes” in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

The book is dedicated to John Weeks from Devon, England , who was almost a guardian to my ancestors in the village of Regent. John Weeks 1800-1857.

The British Modern Missionary Society movement emerged at the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the 19th Century, as a major philanthropic enterprise. The object was global conversion. Men from ordinary parishes, or circuits and with ordinary British backgrounds were the focus of recruitment efforts. It was not the social elite that were targeted by the Society. The justification given was the need for conversion of men and women. A further inducement was the implied hope for the missionaries of a rise in their worldly status.

The Church Missionary Society was established in Sierra Leone in 1804. Amongst those who came forward was John Weeks. John Weeks was born in St Petrox, Dartmouth, Devon and baptised in The Parish Church in October 1800. As a young man he responded to the call to ‘Labour’ in Sierra Leone, but why Sierra Leone? Growing up in Dartmouth, it was possible that he might have been in touch and spoken to the sailors coming through from Sierra Leone. Dartmouth was a major port for collection of fresh food and water for ships on the way to the New World. He most probably must have spoken to sailors about the slave trade and the horrors and hardship experienced by the displaced Africans. Therefore his determination to go to Sierra Leone.

He was a successful carpenter and later trained as a school teacher. In November 3rd 1824 he sailed for Sierra Leone, arriving in early 1825. Within a short time of his arrival, he was appointed as the Church Missionary Agent at Regent. Regent was an important District a village about eight miles from Freetown. It was there the first Missionary Society Church was built in 1816; St Charles. He spent over twenty years in Sierra Leone, returning to England at various intervals. He was to become Bishop of Sierra Leone in1855.

The Cotton Tree on the cover was there when the first settlers arrived from London in 1787