Starting in the 17th century, the Tuckers ruled over one of the most powerful chiefdoms in the Sherbro country of Southern Sierra Leone, centered on the village of Gbap.
Particularly in the Southern Sierra Leone slave trade, members of Afro-European clans such as the Rogers, the Caulkers, and the Tuckers played an integral[citation needed] role as middlemen, allowing them to accumulate material wealth as an emergent merchant class.
[7][8] In the mid-19th Century, elements of the American Missionary Association moved to the colony of Sierra Leone, evangelizing in the Hinterland, with a zeal spurred on by the Amistad Revolt.
On land granted to Sengbe Pieh and the La Amistad returnees, the association would go on to establish an American Mission School in territory under the control of Sherbro Chief Harry Tucker.
After receiving a Western education at such schools locally, hinterland youth, including many Tucker descendants would become integrated into the colonial government apparatus.