1750-1807: Bance (Bunce) Island, located roughly twenty miles from the Atlantic coast, served as the primary fortified trading site for the slave trade in th…

1750-1807: Bance (Bunce) Island, located roughly twenty miles from the Atlantic coast, served as the primary fortified trading site for the slave trade in the Sierra Leone estuary. This strategic hub was utilized by British merchants to facilitate the embarkation of thousands of captives through established networks with local African elites. The island remained a center of intense commercial activity until the legal prohibition of the trade by Great Britain in 1807. Following this legislative shift, the site’s importance as an embarkation point declined as the regional focus turned toward abolition.