Land distribution is considered to be one of the main contributors to inequality in pre‐industrial societies. This article contributes to the debate on the origins of economic inequality in pre‐industrial African societies by studying land inequality at a particularly early stage of African economic history. The research examines land distribution and inequality in land ownership among settlers in the Colony of Sierra Leone for three benchmark years over the first 40 years of its existence. The findings show that land inequality was low at the founding of the Colony but increased substantially over time. We suggest that this increase was enabled by a shift in the type of egalitarianism pursued by the colonial authorities, which was reflected in a change in the redistributive policy applied, which allowed later settlers to appropriate land more freely than had been previously possible.

中文翻译：

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黑色定居者殖民地的土地分布和不平等：塞拉利昂，1792-1831年†

土地分配被认为是导致工业前社会不平等的主要因素之一。本文通过研究非洲经济历史早期特别时期的土地不平等现象，为关于工业化前非洲社会经济不平等现象起源的辩论做出了贡献。该研究调查了塞拉利昂殖民地存在的头40年中三个基准年的土地分配和土地所有权不平等。研究结果表明，在殖民地建立之初，土地不平等程度较低，但随着时间的推移，土地不平等程度大大增加。我们建议，这种增加是由于殖民当局追求的平均主义类型的转变而实现的，这反映在所采用的重新分配政策的变化上，