Liberated Africans and the abolition of debt imprisonment in the Gambia colony under the British West African Settlements,1866--1888

In 1873, the Gambia colony became the first British West African colony to abolish debt imprisonment. The Gambia colony by abolishing debt imprisonment became part of a larger wave of mid-19th century advancements in progressive debtor reforms happening across the British Empire. Other British West African colonies also passed their own reforms: the Gold Coast colony established an insolvency court in 1853, and the Sierra Leone colony passed a bankruptcy act in 1862. Nonetheless, as will be explored in this article, the abolition of debt imprisonment in the Gambia colony was not inevitable. Rather, this abolition was a response to material and political transformations that occurred in the region after the creation of the British West African Settlements (BWAS) in 1866. The creation of the BWAS had significant impacts on the Gambian commercial credit system and on the main holders of debt within the colonial groundnut trade- Liberated African traders.