Late 18th–Mid-19th Century: (The Evangelical Missionary Revival — Commerce, Christianity, and Civilization as the Three Cs, the CMS Founded in 1799, Sierra L…

Late 18th–Mid-19th Century: (The Evangelical Missionary Revival — Commerce, Christianity, and Civilization as the Three Cs, the CMS Founded in 1799, Sierra Leone as the Province of Freedom and the Great Georgian Experiment in Assimilation, Fourah Bay College Founded 1827, Liberia Granted Independence 1847, and Thomas Buxton’s African Civilisation Society Collapsing After the 1841 Niger Disaster): The evangelical revival sweeping Western Europe and North America in the late eighteenth century was closely linked to humanitarian abolitionism. Evangelical eyes turned on Africa as a field ripe for Christian endeavor — this Christianity was intimately tied to European cultural values, condemning polygamy, dancing, drinking, and sexual freedom. Missionaries saw themselves as pioneers of legitimate trade, carrying the three Cs into Africa: Commerce, Christianity, and Civilization. The Anglican Church Missionary Society, founded in 1799, would be to missionary work what the Royal Geographical Society was to exploration. Sierra Leone, the Province of Freedom from the 1780s, was the great Georgian experiment — a new country where former slaves could begin life anew, exposed to skills and the fruits of free labor. It embodied the notion of assimilation — the belief that through exposure to British culture and Christian faith, Africans could become British. Fourah Bay College, founded in 1827, was affiliated to Durham University in 1876. Similar projects included Liberia from the 1820s, granted independence in 1847, and Libreville in Gabon from 1849. Thomas Buxton formed the African Civilisation Society in 1839 and secured government support for an 1841 Niger expedition — almost a third of the contingent died of fever and the venture collapsed. An important principle was established: official support for humanitarian endeavor could only be guaranteed when British national interests were also being served.