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Atlas Obscura - Latest • Feb. 12, 2026, 7:15 p.m.
Memorial to Reverend and Mrs. McGrew in Taiama, Sierra Leone
Reverend Lowery Allen McGrew and his wife Clara moved to Sierra Leone in 1896 to serve as missionaries under the aegis of the Woman’s Missionary Board, a protestant missionary association. Both originally from Ohio, the Reverend and Mrs.
McGrew settled in Taiama in an outpost of a larger missionary station in Rotifunk. Sierra Leone had been a particular interest for American missionaries since the revolt on The Amistad , which saw the enslaved persons that had survived through their subsequent time in Connecticut returned to Sierra Leone.
The year 1896 also saw the British establish a Protectorate of Sierra Leone, expanding the borders of their century-old colony in Freetown over the hinterlands. To pay for the administration of the colony, and to force the population into the money economy, the British imposed a hut tax in 1898.
McGrew settled in Taiama in an outpost of a larger missionary station in Rotifunk. Sierra Leone had been a particular interest for American missionaries since the revolt on The Amistad , which saw the enslaved persons that had survived through their subsequent time in Connecticut returned to Sierra Leone.
The year 1896 also saw the British establish a Protectorate of Sierra Leone, expanding the borders of their century-old colony in Freetown over the hinterlands. To pay for the administration of the colony, and to force the population into the money economy, the British imposed a hut tax in 1898.
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