Where the Sierra Leone Company sought first to convert the native population through evangelism, the African Institution aimed to improve the standard of living in Freetown first. Rules and regulations were proposed at its first meeting on 14 April 1807. One aspect of its purpose was to repair the wrongs which the native Africans had suffered in their intercourse with Europeans. The leaders of the African Institution were James Stephen and William Wilberforce. The Duke of Gloucester, nephew of King George III, acted as the Institution's first president, and was joined by clergymen and aristocrats. Leading Quaker families also became supporters as well as Unitarians like Peter Finch Martineau.
The Institution showed close interest in working with Paul Cuffe, an African-American entrepreneur. In 1810–1 they approached the British government, requesting a land grant in Sierra Leone for him. The African merchants of Freetown, Sierra Leone, were however prevented from getting ahead, by the tight monopoly which the British merchant company Macaulay and Babington held over the Sierra Leone trade. On 7 April 1811 Cuffe met with the foremost black merchants of the colony, including the successful John Kizell. They penned a petition to the African Institution, stating that the colony's greatest needs were for settlers to work in agriculture, commerce and whaling; and that these three areas would facilitate growth for the colony best. Upon receiving this petition, the members of the Institution agreed with their findings. Cuffe and these merchants together founded the Friendly Society of Sierra Leone, a local mutual-aid merchant group dedicated to furthering prosperity and industry among the free peoples in the colony and loosening the stranglehold that English merchants held on trade.
A Special Report was produced in 1815 to rebut an attack on the Institution by Robert Thorpe. The seventh annual report had noted a deterioration of conditions in Sierra Leone, yet had made upbeat comments about all involved. Concerned parties—William Allen and John Clarkson—expressed disquiet, while Thorpe made unmeasured criticisms, pamphleteering and targeting Zachary Macaulay. Henry Brougham headed an internal enquiry at the beginning of 1814, with Wilberforce, Macaulay and Thomas Clarkson. The outcome was that Thomas Perronet Thompson, governor in Sierra Leone and at odds with leading evangelicals, who had already been removed in 1810, was roundly criticised.
The Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions, usually known as the "Anti-Slavery Society", was set up in 1823. Its leadership overlapped substantially with that of the African Institution. It involved James Cropper and Thomas Babington Macaulay, and was somewhat more open in approach.
Dormancy and demise
The Twentieth Report of the Institution concentrated on being informative, rather than summarising activity or raising funds. Wilberforce had retired. By about 1828 such activism as came from the underlying group was in practice being run by the Anti-Slavery Society.
