Colonialism and rural inequality in Sierra Leone: an egalitarian experiment

• We analyze the level of inequality in rural Sierra Leone in the early colonial period. Previous research has suggested that the colony was established under highly egalitarian ideals. We examine whether these ideals also are reflected in the real distribution of wealth in the colony. We employ a newly assembled dataset extracted from census data in the colony in 1831. The results show that rural Sierra Leone exhibited one of the most equal distributions of wealth so far estimated for any preindustrial rural society

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Ekonomisk historia (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Economic History (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Colonialism

Inequality

Wealth

Africa

Egalitarianism

Frontier society

Settler colony

Sierra Leone

West Africa

Nineteenth century

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)