Trade centres · fl. late 18th–early 19th century
Jumbo Town
A trading town of the Bassa littoral whose merchants brokered the contacts that led the Colonization Society's agents to Cape Mesurado.
Biography
Jumbo Town stood on the coast south-east of the Mesurado, one of the string of Bassa landings where captains watered, bought rice and camwood, and paid customs to a resident ruler before opening trade.
Its significance in 1821 is procedural rather than dramatic: the agents of the Colonization Society, without local standing, could not simply present themselves to the kings of the Cape. They arrived through introductions supplied by the coastal traders of towns like this one, along a network that had been carrying strangers to the Mesurado for three centuries.
Historical significance
The founding negotiation of 1821 travelled along an existing African commercial road, and Jumbo Town is where the record of that road surfaces.
Timeline
- late 18th c.Established as a Bassa coastal trading landing
- c. 1810sAt the height of its coastal trade
- 1821Its traders furnish the introductions used at Cape Mesurado
On the map
Associated with Bassa coast. Open the historical atlas.
Related entries
References
- Huberich, Charles Henry (1947). The Political and Legislative History of Liberia.
- Dunn, Beyan & Burrowes (2000). Historical Dictionary of Liberia.
Suggested reading
- Huberich (1947), vol. I.