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In 1893, Freetown, Sierra Leone, founded in the eighteenth century, was made a municipality by the colonial power. This followed a long process of decline in the margin of autonomy granted to Sierra Leoneans (also known as Creoles or Krios). This article discusses two debates organized in 1883 and 1892 by the Wesleyan Female Educational Institution, a Methodist high school founded in 1880 for middle-class girls. These debates take up the arguments employed by supporters and opponents of the municipality project, which centred on tax arrangements. But the article approaches them from a gendered perspective, given the specific location and audience involved. The press that published the debates gives access to the voices of pupils and their teachers, constituting an exceptional source for historians.