Account of the Native Africans in the Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone in West Africa is the subject of this 1803 work by English physician Thomas Winterbottom (1766-1859). In the 1790s he spent four years there working for the Sierra Leone Company (established by abolitionists to resettle ex-slaves), and combating diseases such as malaria and scurvy. He displays none of the pejorative views of Africa or its inhabitants that some of his contemporaries expressed, but has a very positive opinion of the country. Winterbottom describes the women as beautiful and graceful, and he dismisses racial differentiations based on skin colour as being absurd. In Volume 2 Winterbottom focuses on African medicine and common diseases found in Sierra Leone. He pays particular attention to cases of abortions and miscarriages, and to malnourished children. The author does not refrain from addressing circumcision and sexually transmitted diseases, and is intrigued by the role of magic in the native medical tradition.