Treaties & documents · November–December 1822
The engagements at Cape Mesurado, 1822
The attacks on the settlement at Crown Hill and the negotiated peace that followed them.
Biography
After the April crisis and Sao Boso's mediation, relations at the Cape deteriorated again through 1822. Coastal forces attacked the settlement on 11 November and again on 1 December; the settlers, entrenched on Crown Hill behind cannon landed from the ships, held both times.
The military outcome mattered less than the diplomatic one. A truce brokered with the assistance of a British naval officer, Captain Robert Spence, and pressure from the interior powers who wanted the road open, ended the fighting.
Historical significance
Usually narrated as a settler victory; better understood as the moment when the interior's commercial interest in peace overrode the coast's political interest in expulsion.
Timeline
- Apr 1822Sao Boso mediates the first crisis
- 11 Nov 1822First attack on the Crown Hill position
- 1 Dec 1822Second attack repulsed
- Dec 1822Truce negotiated; the settlement survives
On the map
Associated with Cape Mesurado. Open the historical atlas.
Related entries
References
- Huberich, Charles Henry (1947). The Political and Legislative History of Liberia.
- Holsoe, Svend E. (1976). 'A Study of Relations between Settlers and Indigenous Peoples in Western Liberia.'
Suggested reading
- Huberich (1947), vol. I.