Mortality Statistics for West Africa Are, at Best, Approximate. the Groups for Which They Are Available Were Generally Speaking
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APPENDIX MORTALITY IN WEST AFRICA Mortality statistics for West Africa are, at best, approximate . The groups for which they are available were generally speaking too small to have statistical validity. Very few calcula tions differentiate between the new arrivals and the old residents-an im portant distinction since old residents would be expected to have acquired a degree of immunity. The initial attempts at colonization Death Rate Province of Freedom (within the first yearp European settlers Negro settlers Bulama (April 1792 to April 1793) 2 Europeans Sierra Leone Company (first year, 1792 - 1793) 3 Europeans as a whole 49% 1. Includes mortality on the outward voyage from England . R. R. Kuczynski, Dem o graphic Survey of the British Colonial Empire, Volume I: West Africa (London, 1948) , 43-45· 2. Phil ip Beaver, African M emoranda (London, 1805), p. 89; A. Johansen , Descrip tion of Bulama Island (London, 1794), p. 8. Figures include both the outward voyage from England and the homeward voyage of those who left Bulama before the end of the first year. 3. Sierra Leone Company, Account of the Colony of Sierra Leone From Its Fir" Establishment in [sic] I793 .. (London, 1795), pp. 47-49. Appendix: Mortality m West Africa Upper servants 17% Lower servants 49% European settlers 72% European soldiers 69% Nova Scotian Negro settlers at least 17% Sierra Leone Company (second year 1793-1794) Remaining Europeans 10% European personnel on exploring expeditions, 1805-18304 Park's Second Expedition (May-November 1805) Mortality on overland trip from Gambia to the Niger 87% Ultimate mortality 100% Tuckey's Expedition to the Congo 37% Clapperton-Lander penetration from Badagri to the Niger 83% Coastal posts in the early nineteenth century Colonial Office estimate of deaths per year among "the better class of society" (c. 1825) 5 Gold Coast 12·5 % Sierra Leone 8·3 % Church Misssionary Society, total European personnel (1804-1825)6 89 sent out; 54 died 60·5 % Officials of the Company of Merchants Trading to Africa (1812-1823) 7 95 officials sent out; 44 died of disease Gold Coast Government Officials (1822-1825) 111 officials (including military officers) sent out; 55 died of disease 45.0 % European personnel arriving in Sierra Leone over the five years 1821-18268 Civilians: 44 sent out; 20 died 44·5 % Military and Civilians together: 1,612 sent out; 926 died 56.5 % 4. See M. Laird to Clarendon, 5 March 1855 , printed in S. Crowther, Journal of an Expedition up the Niger and Tshada in 1854 (London, 1855), pp. viii-x. 5. Unsigned memorandum, 2 July 1825, CO 267/65. These estimates probably re flect the death rate of "acclimatized" Europeans with reasonable accuracy. 6. William Fox, A Brief History of the Wesleyan Missions on the Western Coast of Africa (London, 1851), p. 61 7. 7. Kuczynski, Demographic Survey, 1, 532. 8. PP, 1826-1827, xv (7), p. 209. Appendix: Mortality in West Africa Total European troops sent out to all West Africa (1810 1825) 9 5,823 sent out; 1,912 died 33.0 % African troops stationed in West Africa (total for 1810- 1825po Of 6,769, 254 died 3.75% Major Tulloch's Investigation of Military Mortality!' European other ranks, annual average mortality from dis- ease only Sierra Leone Command, strength 1,843 men (1819 1836) West Indian Command, strength 4,333 men (1817- 1836) 7·9 % Troops stationed in Britain (1819-1836) 1.5 % European officers, annual average mortality from disease only Sierra Leone Command (1819-1836) 20·9 % African troops, annual average mortality from "fevers" (1819-1836) Sierra Leone Command .24% Windward and Leeward Command (West Indies) .46% Jamaica .82% British Honduras ·44% Bahamas .56% Exploring expeditions and small groups of newcomers, 1830-1850 Laird's Niger Expedition (1832-1833): 49 Europeans, of whom 40 died'" 83% Quorra Expedition to the Niger (1835): 6 Europeans; 1 died'" 16% 9. Report of Commissioners Wellington and Rowan, PP, 1826-1827, vii (312) , pp. 106-8. As the commissioners themselves noted, these reflect both the mortality of newcomers, which ran at about 50 per cent per annum, and that of older residents, which was much lower. 10. PP, 1826-1827, vii (312), pp. 106-8. II. PP, 1837-1838, xl (138), pp. 5-7; PP, 1840 , xxx [Co 228), pp. 16-17 and 24· Major Tulloch's survey may be considered the most careful and reliable of those con ducted during the first half of the nineteenth century. 12. M. Laird and R. A. K. Oldfield, Narrative of an Expedition into the Interior of Africa by the River Niger in 1832-4, 2 vols. (London, 1837) , II, 410-11. 13. C. C. Ifemesia, "British Enterprise on the Niger, 1830-1869," (Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, London, 1959), p. 165 . The Europeans in this case were apparently reo cruited in Africa and hence "acclimatized:' Appendix: Mortality in West Africa Government Niger Expedition (1841-1842) : 159 Europeans; 55 died> 35% Wesleyan Missionary Society, new European personnel sent out to Sierra Leone (1838-1850) : 21 sent out; 7 died 33% Wesleyan Missionary Society, new European personnel sent out to all of West Africa (1838-1850); 67 sent out; 25 died." 37% Mortality of the anti-slavery blockade Annual average mortality (1825-1845) 16 From all causes 6.49% From disease 5.44% From "epidemic fevers" 3.00% Comparative mortality from disease at other naval stations (1825-1845) 1 7 South American Stations .77% Mediterranean Station .93% Home Station .98% East Indian Station 1.51% West Indian Station 1.81% Mortality of officers and men of the blockade, percentage of total mean strength" 1840 4.1 % 1841 7·9 % 1842 5·5 % 1843 2.1 % 1844 2.8 % 1845 ).0 % 1846 3·3 0/0 1847 2·5 % 1848 2.2 % Annual average, 1840-1842 Annual average, 1846-1848 14 . PP, 1843, xxxi (83), p. 1. IS . Fox, Brief History, p. 617. These figures for the period of improving mortality make an interesting contrast with the eMS mortality of 18°4-1825 (above) . 16. A. Bryson, Report on the Climate and Principal Diseases of the African Station (London, 1847), pp. 177-78. These figures differ slightly from some other published figures on blockade mortality, since Bryson constructed them from the pay books rather than the medical reports. The category "epidemic fevers" is therefore not a clinical description but a measure of the number of simultaneous deaths on a single ship . 17 . Bryson, Principal D iseases, pp. 177-78. 18 . PP, 1850 (Lords), xxiv (35), appendix, p. 221. Appendix: Mortality in West Africa Annual average mortality of the West African squadron, 1858-186719 2.2 % Mortality of fever victims Gallinas Raid (1840) : 130 men, 7 days up rrver ; 23 fever cases 3 deaths" Niger Expedition (1841) : European personnel only'" Albert: 64 days up river, 62 men; 55 fever cases, 23 deaths. Wilberforce: 45 days up river, 56 men; 48 fever cases, 7 deaths. Soudan: 40 days up river, 27 men; 27 fever cases, 10 deaths. 19· PP , 1867-1868, lxiv (158), p. 7. 20. R. R. Madden , Commissioner's Report, PP , 184 2, xii (551) , p. 226. 21. ]. O.M'WilIiam, Medical History of the Expedition to the Niger During the Years 1841-42 . .. (London, 1843), p. 126 . NOTE ON THE SOURCES The sources for a work of this kind have no clear limits. Ideally, it should be based on a careful read ing of every work concerned in any way with West Africa, on all the periodical literature, the newspapers-all the archives of the missionary societies, the merchant houses, and the governments. Perfection would demand a similar knowledge of the German, French, and American works on Africa, but the demands of perfection meet practical limita tions. I have followed leads into the European and American literature, when works from abroad seemed to have a peculiar importance for the development of British thought. Printed books and articles published in Britain have been covered more thoroughly, and Chapters I, 8, and 13 are in part bibliographical essays. Among the non-specialist journals, special attent ion has been paid to the Anti-Tacobin Review, the Eclectic Review, the Westminster Re view, the Quarterly Review, the New Monthly Magazine, and Black wood's Magazine as broadly representative of the kind of journal the educated middle class without a special interest in Africa might have read. More specialized journals are discussed in the bibliographical chapters. Archival sources and the personal papers of key authorities are also too extensive to be used exhaustively. They have been consulted with special reference to key periods of changing policy. At these times the official correspondence often went beyond problems of day to day ad ministration, into those of theory and planning. Among the more im portant manuscript sources have been those of the Public Record Office, London, the National Archives of Sierra Leone, the National Archives of Ghana, the Nigerian National Archives, the Clarkson papers in the British Museum, the archives of the Church Missionary Society, the Archives of the Methodist Missionary Society, the papers of the Anti Slavery Society and the Aborigines Protection Society. 488 N ate on Sources Special attention has been paid to the government correspondence which was printed for Parliament, partly because it was available to the public and partly because it included the important suggestions and statements of policy. Where possible, citations have indicated the more readily available Parliamentary Papers, even when a document may have been consulted in the archives. INDEX Abd Shabeeny, El Hage, 200-201 Adams, Capt. John: strategic views, 16 3; Abeokuta : growth of, 156, 313 ; forei gn commercial gu ide, 200; on slave trade, relations, 314- 15, 464; mentioned, 478 255 , 271 ; reference, 12, 163, 200, 211, Aberdeen, Earl of: referen ce, 36 2 254 , 255, 271 Abo, 462 , 464, 465, 468 Adams, Rev.