• Sierra Leone and Guinea
    2014 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses

    • ABOUT 500 years ago, near the mouth of the Sierra Leone River, a tiny silk-cotton tree took root and sprouted. For 300 years the tree grew tall as a tragic procession passed before it. Ruthless slave traders shipped nearly 150,000 men, women, and children overseas to foreign slave markets.

      Picture on page 81

      Freetown’s historic Cotton Tree

      On March 11, 1792, hundreds of freed American slaves gathered under the Cotton Tree to celebrate their repatriation to Africa. That day they founded a settlement that embodied their fondest hope​—Freetown. Freed slaves continued to arrive until the settlement included over 100 different African groups. These new citizens adopted the Cotton Tree as a symbol of freedom and hope.