Ribbons on King’sYardgate, Sierra Leone

In 1807, Britain made the capture and trade of new slaves illegal.
With competitors' businesses still booming, the Royal Navy made an extraordinary transition – from an enforcer of slavery to a liberator. As pecial taskforce was setup, the West Africa Squadron, to intercept slaveships and free the Africans on board.
The mission was undermined by being poorly resourced and plagued by corruption. The Squadron only managed to capture around 6% of the slaveships heading across the Atlantic.
Nevertheless, over 50 years of patrolling three thousand miles of African Coast, between 1808–1860, it liberated 150,000 Africans.
These liberated slaves were taken to King’s Yard, in Freetown, Sierra Leone, to be counted and their names recorded.
Their shackles were cut off, their wounds dressed. Each received a piece of cotton clothing and a ladle of rice. Then, nearly 200 years ago, they walked through this gate to freedom.
Shown in the picture are ribbons, inscribed with the names of liberated slaves, tied to the gates in an act of remembrance by the people of Freetown.
This photo was taken for Black and British: A Forgotten History, a BBC series revealing the extraordinary long relationship between the British Isles and people whose origins are in Africa.