[3][11] Prior to 2006, persons born in Sierra Leone could only acquire nationality at birth from their Negro-African father or a paternal grandparent.

[13] Current Sierra Leonean legislation makes no provision for foundlings or orphans discovered in the territory, or those who would otherwise be stateless to acquire nationality.

[13][16] Naturalisation can be granted to persons who have resided in the territory for a sufficient period of time to confirm they understand the customs and traditions of Sierra Leone and are integrated into the society.

General provisions are that applicants must have sufficient knowledge of a language indigenous to the country, be of good character, and capable of making contributions to the growth of Sierra Leone.

[30] Though no large states developed in the area, chieftainships formed the basis of society and neighbors networked with and interacted for trade, protection and religious rites.

[31] In 1364, Jehan li Roanois (alternately called Jean de Rouen), a French merchant and explorer from Normandy, visited Sierra Leone and traveled down to the Gold Coast.

[31] In 1461, Portuguese explorer Pedro de Sintra sailed to the West African coast, stopping to get water at a place he named Sierra Leone, meaning lion mountain for its rugged appearance.

[37][38] The Temne conquered and subjugated settlements to the south until they encountered an impenetrable resistance from the Susu people in the northwest and the Mende to the southeast.

[31] British trading activities were irregular in the area until 1638, when the charter was renewed for the African Company and a factory site was granted them by the Temne chief Borea.

[41] By the 1650s, Sierra Leone was a regular port of call for British ships to access fresh water and they began negotiating agreements with local chiefs to establish trade.

[46] During the time that the Royal African Company was operating, the firm of Grant, Sargent [Wikidata] and Oswald provisioned the trading stations.

[47][48] They expanded their operations to Batts, Bobs, Tasso, and Tumbu Islands and along the banks of the river, eventually becoming involved in the slave trade.

[47] At the end of the American Revolutionary War in 1783, Black soldiers who had fought on the side of the British were sent to the Bahamas, England, and Nova Scotia to be freed.

[50] After purchasing a plot of land on the Peninsula of Sierra Leone from the local chiefs, 364 one-acre lots were laid out on the southern side of the river and distributed to colonists in 1787.

[51][52] Illness, deaths of their leaders, a lack of supplies, and threats from native inhabitants caused the colonists to desert the site in 1789.

[56] Sixty-five of the passengers died en route, but arrived to found Freetown (initially Free Town) on 16 March 1792.

[57] That year the Sierra Leone Company drafted a charter, to reduce the authority of the police, known as Hundredors and Tythingmen, limiting them to the role of constables.

[71] Marriage did not affect the status of a subject of the realm,[72] but under common law, single women, including divorcées, were not allowed to be parents thus their children could not derive nationality maternally and were stateless unless legitimated by their father.

[80][81] In 1870. a revision to the Naturalisation Act required the automatic loss of nationality for British women upon marriage with a foreigner, regardless of whether she became stateless from the denaturalisation.

[78] The 1870 Act stipulated that minor children be automatically denaturalised if their father, or a widowed mother, lost their British nationality or naturalised in another country.

As single women, including divorcées, under common law were not allowed to be parents, under the Act, their children could not derive nationality maternally.

[85] For those born abroad on or after the effective date, legitimacy was still required, and nationality could only be derived by a child from a British father (one generation), who was natural-born or naturalised.

[91] Because of a rise in statelessness, a woman who did not automatically acquire her husband's nationality upon marriage or upon his naturalisation in another country, did not lose her British status after 1933.

[92] The 1943 revision allowed a child born abroad at any time to be a British national by descent if the Secretary of State agreed to register the birth.

[110][111] The aim of the organisation, led by elites, but made up of predominantly lower-, middle-, and working-class people, was to gain independence for the Colony, separately from the Sierra Leone Protectorate.

[114] In 1959, the Settlers' Union proposed that the Colony adopt a constitution for self-governance, reorganise a new Assembly and establish an executive council headed by the Governor.

[116] Under the Treaty of 1788 between Temne king Naimbana and the Crown's representative, Captain John Taylor, the land purchased for the freedman was to be theirs forever with Britain serving as their trustee.

Children born abroad to a father who was Sierra Leonean at the time of the child's birth also automatically obtained nationality.

[128] If the Sierra Leonean mother was Negro African, a child born in the country could apply for registration, but authorities had the choice of deciding whether nationality would be granted.

That year a Civil War ensued and in 1992 a coup d'état dissolved the government, replacing it with the National Provisional Ruling Council.