Paper short abstract:

This paper reexamines class formation in Freetown between 1884 and 1900. It shows the importance of personal networks to artisan efforts to secure a place in a changing society. It shows how networks were crucial to artisan resistance to social change in the abscence of worker organisations.

Paper long abstract:

Between 1884 and 1900 established artisans in Freetown were forced to compete for employment with a large number of workmen entering jobs traditionally reserved for trained artisans. In response artisans formed a trade union, the Mechanics' Alliance, as well as a newspaper, The Artisan in 1884. Both initiatives were designed to reaffirm the privileged position of artisans vis-à-vis other categories of workers and to establish clear boundaries between different categories of workers. The Mechanics' Alliance as well as The Artisan had lost their importance by 1886. The literature considers a nascent class consciousness to have been the most important legacy of these initiatives. This interpretation ignores subsequent developments.

Leading artisans had access to extensive personal networks which included some of Freetown's most prominent individuals. Personal connections and prestige secured these artisans'place in ongoing discussions on labour. It afforded them participation in discussions on government policy and support from the Freetown press for new class-based organisations in the 1890s. Personal networks thus sustained support for the artisans' in the absence of formal organisations while other workers lacked such support. Ultimately artisans' attempts to reintroduce a strict hierarchy between categories of workers were unsuccessful as their rhetoric never resulted in the desired intervention by the colonial administration. Nevertheless studying these networks allows for new insights into workers' attempts to control processes of social change and stratification. This study shows how connections were formed and utilised in a context of disruptive social change to craft a new hierarchy among workers.

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