Famous Americans
Famous African Americans ... Famous Virginians
Joseph Jenkins Roberts
1809 - 1876
Summary ... Video ... Color Page ... Pictures ... Netlinks ... Timeline ... Biography ... ProjectsJoseph Jenkins Roberts was born in Norfolk, Virginia.
Unlike most African Americans at the time, Joseph was born free. He was not a slave.
Joseph learned the shipping business from his father.
After his father's death, Joseph's family moved to Liberia in Africa.
Joseph Jenkins Roberts was a successful businessman in the new colony.
Joseph became governor of the colony.
When the colony became a nation, Joseph Jenking Roberts was elected the first president.
Several years later, Roberts was elected to serve another term as president.
Joseph Jenkins Roberts died in office.
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VIRGINIA'S NINTH PRESIDENT
JOSEPH JENKINS ROBERTS
Edited by C. W. Tazewell
W. S. DAWSON CO.
Virginia Beach VA 23466
VIRGINIA'S NINTH PRESIDENT: Joseph Jenkins Roberts
An anthology on President Joseph Jenkins Roberts (1809-1876)
with information on Liberia and the American Colonization
Society.
C. W. Tazewell (1917- ), Editor
ISBN 1-57000-052-2 (online), LCCN 90-80507
(Printed version ISBN 1-878515-23-3)
Copyright @ 1992 by C. W. Tazewell
The Editor is grateful for the assistance by Lucile W.
Pearce (1921-1974) in certain of the research for this
publication.
THE EDITOR: Lt. Col. Calvert Walke ("Bill") Tazewell
retired over 32 years ago as a Regular Officer of the United
States Air Force in which he was a
communications-electronics manager and meteorologist. Since
retirement he has been active with historical, library,
environmental, consumer, civil defense, amateur radio, and
youth organizations. He has 15 years experience with
microcomputers. He was the organizer and first head of a
library system for a million people. He was founder and
first president of the Virginia History Federation, and of
the present Norfolk Historical Society (now honorary
president and life member of the latter). He is a writer,
historian and publisher, and has been listed in various U.S.
and British biographical publications. He was raised in
Norfolk and attended Norfolk Academy and Maury High School
W. S. DAWSON CO.
P.O. Box 62823
Virginia Beach VA 23466
a shoestring publisher
C O N T E N T S
Page Numbers Refer to Printed Version
Inscription on Monument in Monrovia . . . . . 4
Picture of Joseph Jenkins Roberts . . . . . 5
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Virginia's Other Presidents . . . . . . . 9
Father of Liberia . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Father of His Country . . . . . . . . . 16
To Observe Joseph Jenkins Roberts Day . . . . 20
First President of Liberia . . . . . . . . 23
The President of the Liberian Nation, Norfolk . 24
Virginia Gets Liberian Flag on Roberts Day . . 24
Four Virginia Negroes . . . . . . . . . 26
Marker to Honor Librarian Leader . . . . . 27
Liberian Envoy to Honor Roberts . . . . . . 27
Roberts Had Faith in Liberia . . . . . . . 29
Roberts Native of Portsmouth . . . . . . . 30
Native of Norfolk Rather Than Petersburg . . . 30
The Americo-Liberians . . . . . . . . . 32
Survival Due To "Vigorous Management" . . . . 38
Devoted His Life To Liberia . . . . . . . 40
Update - A Current View . . . . . . . . 41
All Hail, Liberia, Hail! . . . . . . . . 43
Liberian Adventures Captivate Students . . . . 43
Emerging Liberia . . . . . . . . . . . 45
The Changing Continent . . . . . . . . . 47
Education in Liberia . . . . . . . . . . 48
American Colonization Society . . . . . . . 51
Accounts from Liberia . . . . . . . . . 54
Slaves Rejected Liberty In Liberia . . . . . 55
Membership Certificate in Society . . . . . 57
Called to Serve . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Threat to Future of Nation . . . . . . . . 58
Their Condition a Sad One . . . . . . . . 60
Provisional Constitution and Ordinances . . . 61
More Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
P R E F A C E
Mrs. Pat Matthews wrote in a 1974 letter about J. J.
Roberts, "I feel he is deserving of much fuller treatment
than a magazine article, but I have certain gaps in his life
where there seems to be little information available.
Virginia State College in Petersburg has very little. At
one time there was a large collection of letters, mainly
between Roberts and Colson, but these have been lost. I
tried writing Liberia and the Liberian Embassy with no
results. My best source was the Virginia State Library in
Richmond, and I'm sure there is a great deal of material in
the Library of Congress in Washington."
From time to time for over 25 years I have been trying
to obtain local recognition of the most distinguished person
born in Norfolk, Virginia. I believe that the community
should have an awareness of the contributions and genius of
this famous Virginian. I am sharing this collection of
material on Roberts for use and reference by others with the
hope that it will encourage more interest in and writing on
him.
In January, 1974, I wrote that I had been "interested
in Roberts for almost ten years. While I was active with
the Norfolk Historical Society, I noticed that he was a
local history figure that was not properly recognized by
either the black or white community.... I endeavored to
have Roberts recognized in the local black history program
and in the Norfolk schools, apparently without any
particular success.
"Not too long ago I went to the Norfolk State College
Library to inquire about him and no one I talked to had
heard of him and they were not able to find any material.
Actually I feel that it would be very appropriate for
Norfolk State College to be named for Roberts, especially if
it should become a university (as it probably will in
time)...."
A visit to the Norfolk State University Library the
other day was more rewarding. The reference librarian on
duty said she was a black history buff and well acquainted
with Roberts. She provided me with a useful biographical
citation, and reminded me that the Roberts Village public
housing project was named for J. J. Roberts. She also said
there were Monrovia and Liberia streets in the project.
A writing campaign of over two dozen letters suggesting
that Roberts be noted in Black History Month in 1992 has
produced no results observed by me or the alert staff of the
Local History Section of the Norfolk Public Library. No
answers were received to any of the letters to white and
black leaders, educators and members of the press.
Calvert Walke Tazewell
Virginia Beach, Va.
February 1992
VIRGINIA'S OTHER PRESIDENTS
MONROVIA, Liberia. Ask any Virginia fourth grader how
many Presidents were born in his State, and he will name
eight for you- Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe,
Taylor, Tyler, Harrison and Wilson. He probably will not
know, though, that Virginia also produced Presidents for the
Republic of Liberia in West Africa.
In the shiploads of free Negroes which left Hampton
Roads for Liberia in the early 19th century, were three
Virginians who would lead the new nation in the first
decades of its independence. They were Joseph Jenkins
Roberts (1848-56 and 1872-76), James Spriggs Payne (1868-70
and 1876-78), and Anthony William Gardiner (1878-83).
The foremost of these men, J. J. Roberts, was born in
Norfolk on March 15, 1809. The city had just been through a
boom period in its shipping and growth, and it was busily
paving muddy roads, setting up street lights, and erecting
new brick buildings. Roberts was a freeborn Negro, the
oldest of seven children. One of his early jobs was on a
James River flatboat carrying goods from Petersburg to the
Norfolk docks.
After the death of their father, the Roberts family
moved to Petersburg where they learned of plans to colonize
parts of the African coast. Several shiploads had already
sailed from Norfolk under the sponsorship of the American
Colonization Society. They had settled at the mouth of the
Mesurado River at 6 degrees 20' north latitude, and were
calling their little town Monrovia, after U. S. President
James Monroe.
The Roberts family joined a group sailing on the ship
Harriet on February 9, 1829. Also on board was James S.
Payne of Richmond, who would become the second Virginian
President of Liberia. A few days before the ship docked at
Monrovia, Roberts celebrated his 20th birthday.
In the new colony, the family built a house on their
allotted land, and the brothers began trading in palm
products, camwood, and ivory. The success of the business
enabled them to purchase ships for trade with other coastal
ports. One of the brothers studied in the United States and
became a physician. Another was a minister, the frist
Methodist bishop of Liberia.
At the age of 24, J. J. Roberts was appointed high
sheriff of the colony. His duties involved leading
expeditions to collect taxes or put down uprisings in the
tribal towns near Monrovia. In 1838, the society appointed
him vice governor, and when the governor died two years
later, he became its first non-white leader.
The 1840's were decisive years for the settlement.
Britain and France, which held neighboring territories (now
Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast), viewed Monrovia as merely a
small private venture without the official support of any
recognized government. The American Colonization Society
advised the colony to declare its independence so that it
could claim international recognition and rights.
Late in 1846, Governor Roberts called for a referendum
in Monrovia and three nearby settlements. The settlers
voted for independence, and Roberts was elected the first
President of the republic.
The new nation still had unresolved problems of
territorial limits and jurisdiction. President Roberts
extended the boundaries through treaties and purchases from
tribal chiefs. He took steps to halt slave trading in the
interior and to bring tribal chiefs into the central
legislature.
After four terms, Roberts lost the 1855 election. He
then served 15 years as a major general in the Liberian army
and later as a diplomatic representative to France and
England.
Roberts helped to organize Liberia College, served as
its first president, and traveled often to the United States
to speak and raise funds. He remained the college's
professor of jurisprudence and international law until his
death.
In 1871 the incumbent President of Liberia was
disposed, and the legislature declared J. J. Roberts the
President for another two years. He then won a sixth term,
which he completed a year before his death in 1876. In his
will he left $10,000 and a rubber farm for the support of
education.
The name of J. J. Roberts is well known in Liberia
today. Monrovia, a city of 80,000, has a Roberts Street and
two monuments honoring him. The nation's airport is
internationally known as Robertsfield, and one of the
growing coastal cities is called Robertsport.
March 15, Roberts's birthday, is a holiday when all
schools and businesses halt for the festivities of speeches,
parades, and dancing. Liberians don their best outfits for
the occasion- the women wearing colorful "lappa" dresses and
headties. Throughout the country, descendants of early
settlers join with present-day tribesmen to honor the
Virginian who was the founder of their nation. Judith Evans
Brown in THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT, March 17, 1968
THE FATHER OF LIBERIA
Although every American schoolboy learns that the
Father of his Country as George Washington, few realize that
another son of the Old Dominion also deserves that title.
Joseph Jenkins Roberts was born in Norfolk in 1809,
emigrated to Africa while he was a young man, and led the
small colony of Liberia to it emergence as an independent
republic in 1848. The tiny outpost of the American Society
for the Colonization the Free People of Color had a
population of more than six hundred when Roberts arrived in
1829. During its colonial period he served as sheriff,
chief justice, lieutenant governor, and governor of the
African settlement. When Liberia became independent, he was
elected the first president of the new nation.
Educated and poised, Roberts- an octoroon- came from
the Negro elite of the Old Dominion. His mother, Amelia,
was described by a white contemporary as a woman of
"intelligence, moral character, and industrious habits."
She had gained her freedom from slavery despite the
stringent laws of Virginia's black code and had soon managed
to place herself "on comfortable circumstances." Although
Joseph's paternity is uncertain, he was brought up as the
son of Amelia's husband, James Roberts, a free Negro who had
established his own boating business on the James River.
While Roberts was still a child, the family moved to
Petersburg. The elder Roberts began to transport goods on
his own flatboats from Petersburg to the wharves of Norfolk
and, by the time of his death, had accumulated substantial
wealth for a free Negro of his day. He left his wife and
family two houses and several boats and parcels of land, as
well as other property. In a day when most Negroes were
propertyless slaves, his acquisition of material goods was
impressive.
The Roberts were undoubtedly among the more ambitious
of the free Negro families in Virginia. Of the seven
Roberts children who emigrated with their mother to Liberia
after the death of their father, three of five sons came to
hold important positions in the colony. Two of Joseph's
younger brothers deserve special notice: Henry J. Roberts
left Liberia to study at the Berkshire Medical School in
Massachusetts and then returned to establish a popular
practice in Monrovia, the capital of the colony; John Wright
Roberts became bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in
Liberia and ministered to a body of almost two thousand
members.
It was Joseph Jenkins Roberts who brought the family
its greatest distinction. As a boy in Petersburg, he had
learned not only his father's trade but had also served as
an apprentice in a barber shop. He was thus trained in two
of the most lucrative occupations open to fee Negroes of his
day. His apprenticeship brought him into close association
with one of Virginia's best educated and most outstanding
black residents, William N. Colson, a minister of the gospel
and the owner of the barber shop in which Roberts served.
Colson allowed young Joseph access to his private library,
from which he acquired much of his early education.
The factors that lead Joseph and his mother, brothers
and sisters to emigrate are not known, but undoubtedly the
restrictions of the Virginia black code played a part.
Young and enterprising, Joseph must have been looking for a
better way to make use of his talents. As he began to think
of emigrating to Liberia, he and Colson talked of the
possibility of establishing a transatlantic trading company
that would carry African products to American ports, and
American goods and black emigrants to Liberia.
The religious beliefs of the Roberts family were also
important in their decision to emigrate. The colonization
movement had gained wide support among Virginia churches,
and the Roberts family- faithful members of the
predominantly white Union Street Methodist Church in
Petersburg- were caught up in the missionary zeal that swept
over the United States in the years before the War of 1812.
By going to Africa, they expected to help spread
"Christianity and civilization" among the natives of the
"Dark Continent."
On February 9, 1829, the Roberts family sailed from
Norfolk on the ship HARRIET. After their arrival in
Liberia, they suffered from the dreaded "African fever."
Although living conditions there were very different,
Joseph's mother wrote that they were "pleased with the
country." and had "not the least desire to return to
Virginia."
In 1829, the African colony was just emerging from the
ravages of disease and hostile natives that had almost
destroyed the small settlement. Though troubles continued,
the colony became sufficiently stable to begin significant
economic expansion, and Roberts capitalized on the
situation. With the help of sympathetic white Americans,
Roberts, in Liberia, and Colson, in Petersburg, began to
organize the trading company that they had previously
planned. By the early 1830s they were transporting hides,
ivory, camwood, palm products, and other African goods to
New York, Philadelphia, and other American ports. Roberts
became as adept at trading with the natives as some of the
best African tradesmen, and he established a company store
in Monrovia in which he sold the products furnished by
Colson.
Within a few years, Colson decided that he too would
emigrate to Liberia. The business was prospering, and
Colson, like Roberts, longed to spread Christianity among
the natives. In 1834, he wrote the American Colonization
Society that he did not want to go to Africa purely for
financial profit: he also hoped to "do good." He would not,
he declared, transport liquor to the colonies or sell it to
the inhabitants. By the following January, Colson had
decided to charter a vessel to transport more than fifty
emigrants. He sailed to the African coast later that year,
but soon after his arrival and his reunion with Roberts he
succumbed to the African fever. Roberts, then in his
mid-twenties, wrote Colson's wife, who had remained in
Petersburg to supervise the purchase of supplies for the
company: "Would to God I could say something in this your
time of trouble but this I will say you must remember ...
though [it] seems hard at this time, God does all things
well for them that live and fear him."
After Colson's death, Roberts's trading ventures
continued. Her had already become heavily involved in
colonial politics, and he had gained the confidence of the
white official of the colonization society by protesting
against the slave trade that some unscrupulous Liberians
were carrying on. In 1833 he had been elected high sheriff
of the colony. His duties included responsibility for the
supervisions of elections and for controlling nearby tribes.
Roberts carried out his duties effectively, using diplomacy
whenever possible and resorting to force only when
necessary.
Roberts's success in handling domestic problems led to
his appointment as lieutenant governor in 1839. The
colonization society, in order to provide more autonomy for
Liberia and to ease its own financial burdens, revised the
constitution it had previously provided for Liberia. The
governor of the colony, heretofore the mere agent of the
society, became chief executive of the colony. After the
death of Governor Thomas Buchanan (a Pennsylvanian and the
brother of James Buchanan, who became president of the
United States), Roberts became the first black governor of
Liberia. Under his leadership, as governor from 1842 to
1848 and as president from 1848 to 1855 and from 1871 to
1876, Liberia grew until it stretched along the African
coast from the Sherbro River to the Pedor River, a distance
of nearly six hundred miles.
Roberts's genius as a leader lay in his diplomatic
abilities: he dealt effectively with African tribes and
maneuvered skillfully in the complex field of international
law. His leadership in the colony's efforts to secure its
sovereignty and independence was subtle and calculated.
Even in the 1840s, before the colonization society decided
that it could not carry its burden of responsibility for the
colony's economic well-being, Roberts had begun to argue
that Liberia was an independent nation. Its people, he
maintained, had gained their sovereignty upon emigrating
from the United States. He informed European nations
trading on the African coast that they must deal with
Liberia as an independent state. In 1846 Roberts urged the
Liberian legislature to "announce" the independence of the
country and yet to maintain the continued "co-operation and
assistance" of the colonization society. The legislature
agreed to do so if the people approved. After a close
referendum, Roberts declared that they had voted in favor of
independence. A convention was called to establish a
constitution for the new nation, and Roberts became
president under its provisions.
In 1848, he sailed to Europe to obtain formal
recognition for the new republic. He was well received in
Europe and made to feel welcome in the courts of Queen
Victoria and Napoleon III. Both France and England agreed
to recognize Liberian independence. In 1849, Roberts
returned to Africa with a gift from Queen Victoria: a
four-gun cutter to patrol the coast against slave traders.
At ease with the leaders of the most powerful European
nations, Roberts also found welcome in the United States and
in his native Virginia. On several occasions he returned to
the United States for visits. When Roberts came to America
in 1844, General John Hartwell Cocke, one of Virginia's most
prominent planters and an ardent supporter of the
colonization movement, urged the Liberian to visit him at
Bremo, his home in Fluvanna County. Cocke wrote to the
American Colonization Society: "There is no Governor on
earth, I should entertain with more pleasure than the Chief
Magistrate of Liberia."
After Roberts death in 1876, the Petersburg INDEX AND
APPEAL wrote that his career had been a source of pride to
many blacks throughout the country and especially to his
friends and relatives in Petersburg. Within the last
century, Liberians have honored his memory by erecting two
monuments to him in Monrovia. The nation's leading airport,
Robertsfield, and the growing coastal city of Robertsport
both bear his name, and March 15, the day of his birth, is a
national holiday. Only in more recent years has American
interest revived in the skillful, forceful Virginian who led
a handful of black settlers on the coast of Africa to
independence and nationhood. Pat Matthews in VIRGINIA
CAVALCADE, Autumn 1973, p. 5-11, plus full-page color
portrait of Roberts by Thomas Wilcox Sully. The article
includes many illustrations. Pat Matthews is a former
newspaper reporter who was doing free-lance writing.
George H. Tucker wrote a column that briefly presented
Mrs. Matthews article, stating, "Joseph Jenkins Roberts, an
almost forgotten distinguished early 19th century
Norfolkian, has received belated recognition in an
informative and well-illustrated article by Pat Matthews
..." "Tidewater Landfalls," in THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT, Dec. 10,
1973
FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY
Joseph Jenkins Roberts, often called the Father of his
country, was born of free parents in Norfolk, Virginia, on
March 15, 1809. After the death of his father in 1829, his
mother sailed for Liberia with her three sons. The second
of the brothers, John Wright, entered the ministry of the
Methodist Church, and later became Bishop of Liberia; the
youngest son, Henry, studied medicine and practiced for many
years in Liberia; and Joseph decided to engage in trade.
In 1839 he was appointed Storekeeper under Governor
Buchanan. When Liberia became a commonwealth, he was
elected lieutenant-governor. After the death of Governor
Buchanan in 1841, the Colonization Society appointed Roberts
governor.
During this time he had many experiences with the
natives. In 1838, he went as a colonel on an expedition to
Little Bassa to settle a dispute with them over some land
which belonged to the Colonization Society. With a force of
seventy armed men, Roberts took formal possession of the
region.
The Galas, Ballasada and Bopolo chiefs had entered into
a treaty with the government and agreed to submit all
disputes to arbitration. In 1843, the Ballasada asked
permission to go to war against the Bopolo, who had killed
six Ballasada men. Roberts was able to persuade the chiefs
to talk the matter over and make peace.
In the latter part of 1843, Governor Roberts went with
Commodore Perry to visit the coastal settlements. Upon
reaching Sinoe, they called a council of Kru chiefs to
decide a murder case. As a result of the Council, the
chiefs agreed to give up slave trading, to admit and protect
missionaries, to allow the Liberian Government to settle
disputes between tribes, and not to permit any foreign
nation to gain title to their land.
When the Liberian colonies were first organized, they
received aid and friendship from most European officials.
Only the slave traders were hostile. But as the colonies
became stronger and began to buy land, declare ports of
entry, and levy customs duties and harbor dues, relations
with the British traders became less and less friendly.
In 1845, a British brig entered the harbor of Grand
Bassa and seized a schooner belonging to Stephen Benson.
They sent word that the schooner had been seized on
suspicion of being a slaver, and although the vessel was
acquitted in the Vice-Admiralty Court, Benson was orders to
pay the charges of the trial and the captures cost. This
case was presented to the British Government without result.
Finally, the problems of the colony in regard to
British traders was laid formally before the British
Government. The Secretary of State in Washington was asked
what responsibility the United States accepted for Liberia.
He replied that the United States considered Liberia as an
independent nation and took no responsibility for its
affairs.
On June 27, 1847, Hilary Teage, Beverly R. Wilson, J.
N. Lewis, S. Benedict, J. B. Grisson, John Day, Amos
Harring, A. W. Gardiner, E. Titlor, and R. E. Murray, the
elected delegates, met in convention and declared Liberia's
independence.
In October 1847, Joseph Jenkins Roberts was elected
first President of the Republic of Liberia.
President Roberts soon left for Europe for the purpose
of gaining recognition for the new nation. England was the
first country to give Liberia formal recognition, and France
soon followed. England presented Liberia with a small
transport vessel and a gunboat, and signed a commercial
treaty with the new country. France gave a gunboat. In
1849 Liberia was formally recognized by Portugal, Brazil,
Sardinia, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Hamburg, Bremen,
Lubeck, and Haiti. However, the United States did not
recognize Liberia until 1862.
For eight years, President Roberts guided the affairs
of the nation. A party system was adopted, similar to that
in the United States, and new commerce laws passed.
During this time, a native chief, Grando, had been
giving constant trouble to the colony. Grando was suspected
of the murder of Governor Finley, of Sinoe, and it was said
that he had given more to the colony than any other chief.
In 1850, President Roberts invited the people of Bassa
Cove to decide on the site of the new settlement which was
to be made there. The place chosen was near Fishtown,
Grando's region. Grando first pretended to welcome the new
settlement.
In 1851, when President Roberts was superintending the
laying out of the new settlement. he found a British
steamer, CENTAUR, in the harbor. Commodore Fanshave,
captain of the ship. told President Roberts that Grando had
requested him to help stop the Liberians from settling
there. President Roberts asked Fanshave to invite Grando
aboard the ship. This the commodore did, and Grando came
aboard. He was surprised to see President Roberts there,
and denied the commodore's charges. Later he sought an
interview with the President, convinced him of his
repentance, and begged to be allowed to live in the new
settlement. His request was granted.
For a while, Grando lived peacefully in the settlement.
Then, on November 5, 1851, he attacked the village with
about three hundred warriors, murdering nine settlers,
plundering the homes, and setting fire to the town.
During the next ten days, Grando made two attacks on
the Bassa Cove settlement. Finally President Roberts
arrived on the American ship DALE, while another ship, the
LARK, followed, carrying seventy-five armed men. The
presence of the vessels prevented another attack at this
time.
President Roberts then returned to Monrovia and made
preparations for a stronger campaign against Grando. On
January 1, 1852, he arrived in Buchanan (the new name for
Bassa Cove) with five hundred colonists and about the same
number of native troops.
Grando, meanwhile, had allied himself with Boyer, the
chief at Tradetown. Together they commanded about five
thousand warriors. They made their headquarters in a
strongly fortified town surrounded by swamps.
In an hour and a half of fighting, the colonists drove
Grando's warriors out of the town, and the warriors
retreated to join Boyer at Tradetown. On January 15, the
colonial force was joined by the second regiment. They
attacked Boyer's town, and the colonial army was again
victorious.
There was clear evidence that an English trader named
Lawrence had furnished arms to Grando and Boyer and helped
them in their campaign. Soon after this battle a British
vessel, carrying the British consul, came to the coast.
Without communicating with the Liberian officials, the
consul went to Tradetown, called several chiefs on board the
ship, and had them sign statements denying that they had
sold land to Liberia. Later, an English sloop of war
arrived in Monrovia and sent a dispatch to the government
denying the Liberian right to exercise sovereignty over
Tradetown and stating that England would not allow Lawrence
to be molested.
When President Roberts went to England in 1852, he
reported this matter to the British Government and
Parliament placed an embargo on Tradetown. Boyer was not
able to keep the support of his Bassa allies, and, the
embargo proving effective, he stopped dealing in slaves.
Although many other battles were fought, on the whole
the relations with the natives were friendly and most of the
land was bought with peaceful negotiation.
In 1851, the act to incorporate Liberia College was
passed, and when President Roberts retired from office in
1856, he was at once appointed President of the college.
In 1852, a treaty of amity and commerce was signed with
France, similar to the one signed with England. Liberia was
formally recognized by Belgium the following year.
In 1854, post offices were established in each county,
and an issue of paper money was authorized.
Stephen A. Benson was elected President in 1855, and
Beverly P. Yates was elected Vice-President. The following
year, Roberts as a Major-General, led a force of a hundred
and fifty men to aid the settlement of Harper and
neighboring settlements in their war with the Greboes.
Roberts was again successful in concluding negotiations with
the native chiefs, and a treaty of peace was signed with
them. At the same time Roberts negotiated the terms for the
annexation of the Republic of Maryland to Liberia, and the
two republics were united.
During the administration of President Roye, in 1871,
emissaries were sent to England to negotiate a loan which
was needed for building roads, bridges, and for internal
improvements. When news of the terms of the loan, which
were usurious, reached Monrovia, President Roye was
impeached and the vice-president finished out the term.
At the next election, Roberts was recalled to guide the
nation through the critical situation created by the British
loan. He journeyed to England in an effort to clear up the
terms of the loan as well as to settle a boundary dispute.
He and the British were unable to reach an agreement on the
boundary question, and Roberts was able to secure only
thirty thousand dollars on the loan. For this sum, Liberia
would have to pay back six hundred and sixty-three thousand
dollars.
The strain and discouragement of this trip seriously
impaired Roberts's health, and he became increasingly
feeble. In January 1876, he turned his office over to
President Payne, and he died on February 24. THIS IS
LIBERIA, Stanley A. Davis. NY: The William-Frederick Press,
1953, p. 82-87
TO OBSERVE JOSEPH JENKINS ROBERTS DAY
Among the little nations of the world is the Negro
republic of Liberia on the west coast of Africa. Founded as
an independent state on July 26, 1847, the republic will
celebrate its one hundredth anniversary as a sovereign
nation on July 26, 1947, and continue with an international
exposition during 1948-49. The first president of this
nation and the first president of Liberia College was Joseph
Jenkins Roberts. He was born in Virginia in 1809. This man
achieved distinction as a merchant trader, statesman and
educator. It is therefore fitting that the Negro teachers
of Virginia should honor one of their native sons by
publishing an account of his life in their magazine. It is
likewise appropriate that all the teachers of Virginia
should further honor him by joining in the observance of
Joseph Jenkins Roberts day- March 14, 1947,- the day bearing
the official sanction of Governor Tuck.
Like other noted persons of American history, the
paternity of Roberts is not fully known. He may have been
the offspring of a white man, or of James Roberts, the
lawful Negro husband of his mother, Amelia Roberts. James
Roberts was born free; Amelia Roberts did not become free
until 1804 when she was twenty-three years old. There is
some doubt also concerning his exact birthplace. It was
either Norfolk or Petersburg, and in that section of
Petersburg known as Pocahontas. Certainly Petersburg has
the greater claim on him today inasmuch as his parents lived
here and the existing public and private documents covering
his early life reveal him as a permanent resident of this
town.
The lines for future achievement of Roberts were
clearly marked for him during his years in Petersburg. Here
he followed remunerative occupations, held membership in a
church, pursued an education, belonged to an industrious
family, and moved in the best social circles.
His father or stepfather, James Roberts, was a boatman
and the owner of a variety of craft sailing on the James and
Appomattox rivers. To this business of navigation Joseph
Jenkins was trained. The youth also entered barbering and
worked in a shop operated by William N. Colson. The barber
business brought good income to most free Negroes, and it
did to Roberts. For his spiritual uplift he belonged to the
Methodist Church, the religious body which at that time
showed more concern for the welfare of Negroes than any
other in Virginia. Methodist slaveholders took the lead in
liberating their slaves. For his educational development
two or more schools awaited him. In all probability he
attended the school of John T. Raymond which was operated by
a society of free Negroes on Sundays, or he was taught
privately by a Negro tutor. But like certain presidents of
the United States, this future president of Liberia no doubt
received the greater part of his training by the traditional
American process of self-education and by contact with
aristocratic white persons of the community with whom he
came in close contact.
The industry of his family is proved by their
accumulation of property. More than once James Roberts
bought real estate, and he provided well for his wife and
children. At the time of his death (1823) his real estate
embraced two houses and lots valued at sixteen hundred
dollars and personal property, consisting chiefly of four
boats, valued at six hundred dollars. Several years later
Amelia Roberts sold this property, which, added to the sums
of money earned by her son, Joseph, left them in a position
to engage in higher business pursuits when the opportune
time arrived.
Finally, Joseph J. Roberts enjoyed the association of
the leading free Negroes of the town. Among these were
Anthony D. Williams, Joseph Shepherd, John T. Raymond,
Colson Waring, Nelson Elebeck, and William N. Colson.
Williams was a shoemaker; Shepherd and Raymond were teachers
and property holders; Waring was a preacher and property
holder; Elebeck and Colson were barbers, and property
holders in the second generation. To property ownership,
Colson added learning. By reason of his constant letter
writing, his reading of books on intricate subjects, and his
possession of a private library, the progenitor of the
Colson family of today, in depth of knowledge, easily
surpassed many college bred youth of our day. Colson, a man
of brown complexion, and Roberts, a man of light complexion,
were boon companions and both were highly progressive.
But in spite of the success of these individuals in
Petersburg, there were certain influences operating in
America at this time which led them and free Negroes
everywhere to consider emigration to a foreign land. Two
centuries earlier, groups of Englishmen had migrated from
England to America because of religious oppression; now in
the 1820 decade and later, groups of free negroes were to
migrate from America to Africa because of racial oppression.
In every state of the United States they were granted
important civil rights, but in no state were they granted
complete political rights. Worse still, according to the
pronouncements of the leading statesmen, Negroes were never
to occupy a position of equality with the white race by
making them real citizens.
Sensing the injustice of this situation, but holding
rigidly to the view that America was to forever remain the
white man's country, a number of the most prominent people
in the United States assembled at Washington, D. C. in 1816
and formed the American Colonization Society. Their chief
purpose was to persuade free Negroes and ex-slaves to
emigrate to a foreign land and finance them on the voyage to
this land. The country which the Society secured was
Liberia and to this country, they, with the backing of the
United States government, sent 6,792 emigrants over a period
of thirty-one years (1820-1851). Of this number 2,409 were
Virginia Negroes. One of the companies of emigrants from
Virginia came on the ship HARRIET in 1829. Among her 160
passengers on board was Joseph J. Roberts.
All of the experience gained by this man in Virginia
found ample opportunity for expression in Liberia. He soon
became one of the leading citizens of the country. His
first venture in the new country was to put into operation a
mercantile company which he, Colson, and others had already
organized in Petersburg. It bore the name of "Roberts,
Colson, and Company." Finding such raw products as
dye-woods, hides, ivory, palm oil, and rice in abundance in
Liberia, the company exported these products to merchants in
New York and Philadelphia. They bought a ship, the schooner
CAROLINE for this purpose, and on her return voyage to
Africa, brought over goods of American manufacture, which
Colson's wife had purchased in this country for sale in the
company's store in Monrovia. This export and import
business continued for a number of years, but unfortunately
Colson's connection with the enterprise was lost following
his untimely death in Liberia in 1835.
The business success of these merchant traders and
other met with the approval of the American Colonization
Society. Indeed this organization welcomed any sign of
growth, because it was never their intention to keep
settlers in Liberia in a state of dependence. Rather they
allowed Liberia to follow "the usual evolutionary steps
noted in the growth of many a pioneer nation." First came
the period of colonization, and finally the establishment of
the independent nation. Self government was thus introduced
gradually.
Every step upward was accompanied by the drafting of
the services of Roberts. During the last years of the
colonial period he held minor offices, then during a portion
of the commonwealth he served as governor, and finally when
independence was declared in 1847 he was elected the first
president., with his term beginning in 1848. He served in
this high office for four terms, he retired from
governmental life for a period of twenty-four years, only to
be returned to the presidency in 1872, to serve until his
death in 1876.
But the long years of vacancy as president of the
nation meant for Roberts only as a long a period for
activity as president of Liberia College. Founded (on
paper) by the legislature in 1851, the institution was
assigned to Roberts immediately upon his retirement from the
presidential office in 1856. His was the task of first
securing buildings and equipment for the college. Then
after it was formally opened in 1862, he served as its head
and as professor until his death. Thus during the last four
years of his life's career he was a dual president- of the
college and of the nation. Working against heavy odds, his
institution, the capstone of education in Liberia, was
attended during his administration by three hundred students
in the preparatory department, sixty in college, with only
nine of these finishing with the bachelor's degree. As in
the Southland of the United States at the same time, college
education in Liberia was then in its infant stage.
Into a discussion of the numerous problems of
statecraft which faced Roberts as first president of Liberia
the writer in this short article can not enter. It is
sufficient to note that his tasks were so well performed
that the citizens of this country today hold him in the same
high esteem as Americans hold George Washington, that is,
they style him the father of his country.
The purpose of this sketch is to show the man in his
Virginia setting. In a sense it is an effort to bring him
back home to the days of his youth. For here in Petersburg,
Virginia he was in all probability born, here he was married
in a house which still stands, and here he has lateral
descendants today and direct descendants of his close
friend, William N. Colson.
It is fitting and proper, then, that Virginians of both
races should join hands with Liberia in the celebration of
the one hundredth anniversary of the nation's independent
existence. This we propose to do on March 14, 1947 by the
observance of Joseph Jenkins Roberts day throughout the
schools of the state and by an appropriate ceremony on this
day at the Virginia State College. Luther P. Jackson in
VIRGINIA EDUCATION BULLETIN, January 1947. Dr. Jackson was
stated as a noted historian and civic rights leader, and a
professor at Virginia State College, Petersburg.
FIRST PRESIDENT OF LIBERIA
Joseph Jenkins Roberts (1809-1876), the first President
of Liberia, was born of free Negro parents in Petersburg,
Va. He migrated to Liberia in 1829 with his widowed mother
and younger brothers, and became a merchant. In 1842, he
became the first Negro President of the colony of Liberia.
The colony continued to have difficulty with former
inhabitants of the area, and in an attempt to raise money,
they decided to lay import duties on good brought into
Liberia. This caused international problems, because
Liberia was not a sovereign country or a United States
colony. Roberts visited the U.S. in 1844 in the hope of
adjusting this matter, but the American government avoided
taking a stand in defense of Liberia, because the annexation
of Texas was forcing the slavery question to the front. The
American Colonization Society gave up all claims to Liberian
colony. Roberts returned to Liberia and continued
purchasing land. In 1847, he called a conference at which
the new Republic of Liberia was proclaimed, and he was
elected its first President. He was re-elected in 1849,
1851, and 1853. Roberts signed a commercial treaty with
Britain in 1849. His visits to France and Belgium were
instrumental in achieving recognition for Liberia as a
sovereign country. In 1856, he was elected first president
of the new College of Liberia. In another visit to the U.
S. in 1869, Roberts addressed the annual meeting of the
African Colonization Society at Washington. In 1871, he was
again re-elected President of Liberia and served until his
death in 1876. CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE NEGRO IN
AMERICA by Peter M. Bergman. NY: Harper and Rowe, 1969, p.
92
THE PRESIDENT OF THE LIBERIAN NATION, OF NORFOLK
The Wilmington, (Del.) Commercial of the first inst.,
says: "Joseph J. Roberts became today President of the
Republic of Liberia, in West Africa. He is a native of
Norfolk and went to Liberia more than forty years ago. He
was for six years governor of this colony, and in 1836
became the first president of the new republic. He was
reelected three times, serving eight years. Such is his
popularity, that he has been reelected for a fifth term of
two years. He is a worthy member of the Methodist church.
The Republic of Liberia is attracting numerous colored
emigrants from the United States, and from the West Indies."
Norfolk JOURNAL, Jan. 4, 1872
VIRGINIA GETS LIBERIAN FLAG ON ROBERTS DAY
Tuck, Speaking at Rites,
Hits Trouble-Makers In Race Relations
Petersburg, March 15 (AP)- The United States will take
part in a celebration of the first centennial of Liberia's
independence, Sidney de la Rue of the State Department said
last night.
In an address for "Joseph Jenkins Day" [sic] at
Virginia State College here, said Congress would be asked
for funds for expenses. Liberia became a republic July 26,
1847.
Reporting on recent measures of American aid to the
West African Negro republic, La Rue, special assistant to
the director of the State Department's Office of Eastern and
African Affairs, said:
1. A new harbor at Monrovia, the Liberian capital,
built by an American concern, expected to be ready by
August.
2. The State Department favors an arrangement to
maintain Roberts Field, an airport built in wartime, to
permit continuation of an air link between the United States
and Liberia.
La Rue said the State Department has been "at all times
willing to give sympathetic consideration to any request for
assistance by Liberia."
The Negro republic presented its flag to the
Commonwealth of Virginia tonight at the concluding episode
in a day set aside for the State to pay tribute to Roberts,
one-time Petersburg barber who became Liberia's first
president a century ago.
Dr. F. A. Price, Liberian consul general to the United
States, handed his country's colors to Virginia Conservation
Commissioner William A. Wright, who accepted them on behalf
of Governor Tuck in ceremonies at Virginia State College.
The same program featured the unveiling of a portrait
of Roberts by nine-year-old William Nelson Colson who
emigrated from Petersburg to Liberia with Roberts and became
his associate in a mercantile firm there before the African
settlement grew to Statehood.
In ceremonies her earlier today, Governor Tuck said in
a network radio address that Roberts' rise from his
relatively humble birth to a position of statesmanship was
due to his determination, industry and good common sense.
"Joseph Jenkins Roberts was to Liberia what George
Washington was to the United States," the governor said.
"He was its father."
Tuck, who designated today- eve of the 138th
anniversary of Roberts' birth- as Joseph Jenkins Roberts
Day, took occasion in his radio talk to express belief that
the Negro in America "is closer to attaining the standing as
a citizen he desires than is admitted by the professional
trouble-makers among us representing both races."
The governor said that no real problem existed between
the white and Negro races in Virginia and that there was a
mutual respect and confidence among the vast majority of
both races.
"We understand each other," he said, "and either race
will not tolerate the meddling of outsiders wholly ignorant
of our way of life who are bent upon formenting unrest to
mar these cordial and friendly relationships." THE
VIRGINIAN-PILOT, March 16, 1947
FOUR VIRGINIA NEGROES
Distinguished honors for four Virginia colored men- two
living and two dead- came within a single month.
On March 14, tribute was paid to the memory of Joseph
Jenkins Roberts, born in Petersburg in 1809, first president
of the Republic of Liberia, a country that will celebrate
its centennial on July 26. Born of free parents, Roberts
emigrated to Liberia, where in 1847 he became that country's
first president.
The Virginia General Assembly has appropriated $15,000
to aid in establishment of the Booker T. Washington
Birthplace Memorial. The United States Treasury has
recently issued memorial fifty-cent coins to be sold at a
premium to aid in erection of the memorial. Washington was
born on the Burroughs plantation near Hales Ford in Franklin
County, and educated at Hampton Institute. Following his
founding and development of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama,
there was inscribed on his tombstone: "He lifted the veil of
ignorance from his people and pointed the way to progress
through education and industry."
Plummer Bernard Young, Sr., founded the Norfolk Journal
and Guide in 1910 and is still active in its management,
with his son, P. B., Young, Jr., as editor. It has been
given the Wendell L. Wilkie Journalism Award for having
rendered during 1946 the highest public service of any Negro
newspaper in the United States. The previous year the
Journal and Guide shared two honors with the Pittsburg
Courier. P. B. Young, Sr., was born in Littleton, N. C., in
1848, and after studying at St. Augustine College, raleigh,
settled in Norfolk, where he organized the Tidewater Bank
and Trust Company. In 1943 he was made chairman of the
board of Howard University, Washington, and has in the past
been a trustee of Hampton Institute, of St. Paul's
Polytechnic College, and chairman of the Southern Conference
on Race Relations.
Recently elected to the presidency of Fisk University
is Charles Spurgeon Johnson, a native of Bristol, Va., and a
graduate of Virginia Union University, Richmond, the first
Negro to hold the Fisk presidency. He had been a member of
the faculty since 1928, as director of the department of
social sciences. Recently he served as a member of the
Allied Education Commission which went to Japan at the
request of General MacArthur to make recommendations as to
the Japanese school system.
Recognition of four Virginia Negroes, two living and
two dead, should be an inspiration to all members of that
race, and of satisfaction to all who look for better race
relations and for progress through education and effort.
From the Roanoke World News, in THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT, May 12,
1947.
MARKER TO HONOR LIBERIAN LEADER
PETERSBURG- A memorial marker will be dedicated June 4 in
honor of the years Joseph Jenkins Roberts, often called the
George Washington of Liberia, spent in Petersburg in the
early 1800s....
While president he made a number of visits to the
United States and to Petersburg. In 1869, during an address
at the former Union Street Methodist Church, he told the
crowd that 43 years earlier, at the same place where he
stood, he had made a public profession of religion....
RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH April 23, 1978 (date not certain)
[more complete information in item that follows]
LIBERIAN ENVOY TO HONOR ROBERTS
PETERSBURG- Liberian Ambassador Sir Francis Alfonso
Dennis will be the keynote speaker at memorial services
today for Joseph Jenkins Roberts, Liberia's first president
and former Petersburg resident.
The 2:30 p.m. program will be held at Oak Street A.M.E.
Zion Church. The unveiling of a memorial marked next to the
church at Sycamore and Wythe streets is set for 3:30 p.m.,
and a reception is slated for 4 p.m. at the Grand Hotel of
Beaux-Twenty Club.
Community leaders, Liberian representatives and
secondary and college students will be among those at the
services saluting "the George Washington" of Liberia.
Dr. John Rupert Picott, executive director of the
Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History
in washington, will deliver special remarks.
The Liberian national anthem and the "Star-Spangled
Banner" will be among the music played.
The observance stems from the work of Joseph H.
Jenkins, a retired English professor at the Virginia State
College and chairman of the Roberts Memorial Fund.
Jenkins, who is not a descendant of the man being
honored and often is asked if he is, appeared before City
Council in November 1976, urging that a marker be built. In
June 1977, the city provided the site and $1,900 for a
marker and the service.
Through the non-profit foundation, more than $3,000 in
additional contributions was received. A brochure will be
published later this year and will include a biography of
Roberts, his inaugural address and other pertinent writings.
The cover will be a reproduction of a 1844 painting of
Roberts done by Thomas Sully and owned by the Pennsylvania
Historical Society.
Contributions toward the projects here come from many
types of people, and Wert Smith of Smith Advertising, in an
effort to stimulate community awareness of the Roberts
memorial program, donated five billboards to publicize the
project.
"We have taken it slowly and quietly, tried to involve
as many people as possible and the achievement has been
gratifying," Jenkins said.
A 6-foot-long marker, 42 inches high, will be the
monument, Jenkins said, instead of a statue of Roberts.
"The marker provides the dignified recognition in this
community where he once lived. His real achievements were
elsewhere," Jenkins said. "He achieved mightily in Africa
and there are many monuments there,
"The airport in Liberia is named for him, [as is] the
university which he served as president. Here in
Petersburg, where he lived during his formative years, this
marker is sufficient- it indicates he was once a resident
here and that the people here appreciated him."
The inscription on the marker reads, "Joseph Jenkins
Roberts, resident of Petersburg 1809-1829, President of
Liberia 1847-1851, 1868-1876."
On the back it reads, "Joseph Jenkins Roberts worked
100 yards northwest of this spot." The names of the council
members authorizing the memorial also appear.
Roberts, who worked in a barber shop on Union Street
and made his public profession of religion in a church that
used to stand in the neighborhood, would have walked in the
area where the marker stands.
"It is a proper place for the marker," Jenkins said, "a
site associated with black activity in Petersburg and a
place, so visible, city residents and visitors to this city
can't miss it." LeeNora Everett in RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH,
June 4, 1978, P. D-1,3 (related story on page D-8) Also,
THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT, June 5, 1978, "Statue of Liberian
Dedicated," stated, "The Liberian ambassador to the United
States referred Sunday to his nation's first president as a
noted general and statesman `who inspired the gratefullness
of succeeding generations of Liberians.'"
ROBERTS HAD FAITH IN LIBERIA
PETERSBURG- On the Jan. 1, 1825 Register of Free Negroes
and Mulattoes in the Petersburg clerk's office appears the
name Joseph Jenkins, son of Amelia Roberts.
Joseph Jenkins Roberts, whose formative years were
spent in Petersburg and who would become the first president
of Liberia, was described in that 1825 registration as "a
lad of colour, 16 years old in March next- rather above 5
feet 6 inches high in shoes, light complexion, grisley or
reddish brown hair..."
It concluded: "he deserves to be registered."
To become registered, blacks had to show they were
needed in the community's labor market. After a court
granted them that status, they carried their legal papers
with them, since they had to be presented upon demand.
At the time Roberts worked in a barber shop on Union
Street and on one of his father's boats, which carried
freight from Petersburg to Norfolk.
Four years later, Roberts went to Liberia under the
sponsorship of the American Colonization Society.
William N. Colson, who had owned the shop where Roberts
had worked, joined in a mercantile operation that included
Roberts....
In 1836, Roberts wrote Sarah H. Colson, wife of his
business partner, to tell her of her husband's untimely
death in Monrovia.
The letter, which is in the archives at Virginia State
Library's Johnston Library, relates that Colson was well
during the passage, but 15 days after his arrival he became
ill with a fever.
Roberts' faith is shown in passages of the letter: "...
the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. He works in a
misterious way his wonders to perform, though it seems hard
at this time, God does all things well for them that love
and fear him. You cannot tell for what cause he had
thought proper to remove him from this world of bustle and
confusion, for his part, he is gone to the realms above, he
is gone to Abraham's bosom and expects to meet you there."
From colonization to the era of the commonwealth to the
establishment of an independent nation, Roberts gave his
service to Liberia.
During the last years of the colonial period, he held
minor offices, and when independence was declared in 1847,
he was elected Liberia's first president, his term staring
in the next year....
Today's ceremony honoring Roberts is not the first in
the state.
During the tenure of Gov. William M. Tuck and the 100th
anniversary of Liberia as a nation, Joseph Jenkins Roberts
Day, March 14, 1847, was held in Virginia.
Historian and civil rights leader Luther P. Jackson,
who taught at VSC from 1922 until his death in 1950, saluted
Roberts in the January 1947 Virginia Education Bulletin.
It is fitting, Jackson wrote, "that the Negro teachers
of Virginia should honor one of their native sons by
publishing an account of his life in their magazine,"
emphasizing Roberts' "distinction as a merchant trader,
statesman and an educator."
VSC archivist Lucious Edwards Jr. reflected that
Roberts, who had no formal education, faced a situation in
Liberia similar to the one that exists in the Middle East.
"There were several different kingdoms in Liberia- the
Maryland Colony, the Virginia Colony- he united them, got
their support."
A little-known fact, Edwards said, is that the first
four presidents of Liberia were from Virginia. RICHMOND
TIMES-DISPATCH, June 4, 1978, P. D-8
ROBERTS NATIVE OF PORTSMOUTH
Liberia was founded by free colored people, sent out in
1822 by the American Colonization Society, of which Henry
Clay was president. Joseph Jennings [sic] Roberts, the
first president of the republic, was elected October 5,
1847- he was a native of Portsmouth, and was carried out on
a ship commanded by Capt. Henry Peters. HISTORY OF NORFOLK
COUNTY VIRGINIA AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS, William H.
Stewart. Chicago: Biographical Publishing Co., 1902, p. 384
NATIVE OF NORFOLK RATHER THAN PETERSBURG
A cheerful trend of the period, which, unhappily, did
not accomplish the desired result, was the activity in
Petersburg and nearby counties of auxiliary societies of the
American Colonization Society. The purpose was to encourage
the liberation of Negro slaves and their colonization in
Liberia. Letters of the time often contain references to
vessels sailing from City Point with large numbers of freed
Negroes. The CYRUS made several voyages for the purpose.
When its captain died during one of the journeys, his wife,
Mrs. Pamela Gary, piloted the ship home. A passenger on the
HARRIET in 1829 was Joseph Jenkins Roberts, who was to
become the last governor of Liberia under the American
Colonization Society and the first president of the
independent nation. Roberts probably was a native of
Norfolk rather than Petersburg, but he long made his home in
Petersburg. Liberia enjoyed its most successful years under
his leadership, and local esteem for him was shown during
his several visits to Petersburg. PETERSBURG'S STORY: A
HISTORY. James G. Scott and Edward A. Wyatt, IV.
Petersburg, Va.: Titmus Optical Co., 1960, p. 64-65
THE AMERICO-LIBERIANS
... But it resulted in a new and very practicable
document's being adopted by the Society, known as the
Constitution of 1838. This was brought to the colony by
Governor Buchanan, who arrived at Monrovia on April 1, 1839.
On landing, he presented the new constitution to the
settlers. It was accepted by unanimous vote, subject to one
slight change that was later agreed to by the Society. The
colonists thus, for the first time, themselves in effect
enacted a constitution. They might have objected to the
Society's document, might have insisted on their own. That
they did not do so was the act of a free people, an act of
sovereignty. The Constitution of 1838 became their own
constitution. The Society remained the servant, not the
master of the settlers.
Governor Buchanan's administration was constructive.
In particular he addressed himself to breaking up the slave
trade still carried on at points along the coast, notably by
groups of Spaniards who had slave "factories" at a distance
from Monrovia in the direction of Cape Mount. Buchanan let
his zeal outrun his authority (he was also United States
agent) but he was never seriously called to account, and his
actions went far toward the final destruction of the slave
trade.
There were others than slavers who had a foothold on
the Liberian coast. British traders had for many years
maintained establishments for dealing with the natives,
bartering so-called "trade goods" for ivory, palm oil, and
other local products. These traders denied the right of the
new Liberian Government to control trading within the
territory over which the colonists claimed sovereignty. In
particular, they denied the right of the colony to exact
customs duties. They were upheld in their denial by
officers of the British Navy, operating off the coast.
Soon after Buchanan's accession as governor, the matter
of the British right to trade regardless of Liberian laws
came to a head. A British subject was accused of trading in
defiance of the colonial laws and was brought before the
Liberian court. The legal question involved in the case
(Commonwealth of Liberia vs. John G. Jackson, Master of the
British schooner Guineaman) was a close one, turning on
whether or not his act in taking aboard a cask of palm oil
constituted trading. The case was tried before Lieutenant
Governor J. J. Roberts, sitting as Chief Justice. Mr.
Roberts was later to become Liberia's first President. The
facts in the case were well established. Roberts' charge to
the jury is remarkable for its fairness and for its clear
expression of the difficult legal points involved. It led
to a verdict of guilty and the defendant was fined,
protesting that he would bring the matter before Her
Majesty's Government and if necessary before Parliament.
The real issue was Liberia's right as a sovereign nation to
govern its territory and territorial waters, a right
constantly denied by the British.
Two points about this case are especially noteworthy:
first, the carrying of the matter into court by the
Liberians; and second, the personality of the presiding
judge. Joseph Jenkins Roberts was a Negro, born free in the
United States, where he had received a liberal education,
which did not, however, include the law. He had, in fact,
followed mercantile pursuits, establishing in Liberia a
successful trading company and owning vessels. Yet his
charge to the jury was a masterpiece, its legal soundness
never successfully challenged.
Governor Buchanan died at Bassa Cove September 3, 1841.
Lieutenant Governor Roberts succeeded him and was affirmed
as Governor by the Society the following January.
The constant denial of the European powers, especially
Great Britain, of the right of Liberia to exercise
sovereignty continued to be the chief concern of the
administration at Monrovia. The colony will still pitifully
small and weak, numerically and physically. Exclusive of
recaptured Africans and natives, it numbered less than three
thousand. But it was strong in purpose and its leadership
was acquiring formidable stature. That this little group of
people should come to such a degree of political maturity
within two decades is astonishing. Their task had been more
than one of creating a settlement against heavy odds; they
now had to face the might of the British Government. David
was to meet Goliath.
The British, in the person of their naval officers,
persisted in resisting Liberian sovereignty. The position
of Her Majesty's Government was stated by Captain Denman,
R.N., who claimed that "as British traders had for a long
series of years carried on an undisturbed trade with the
natives," at Bassa Cove in particular, the Liberians had "no
right now to insist upon their compliance with any
regulation made by the Government of Liberia."
By 1843 the matter was in diplomatic channels, with the
British trying to pin down American policy. The British
minister in Washington was instructed to address Secretary
of State Upshur, inquiring as to the degree of official
patronage and protection accorded Liberia by the United
States and, if such protection was extended, requesting a
definition of the geographical limits of Liberia. To this
inquiry Secretary Upshur replied, setting forth clearly that
Liberia had no political relationship with the United
States. He skirted around the question of Liberia's
sovereignty, but said that the United States "would be very
unwilling to see it [Liberia] despoiled of its territory
rightfully acquired, or improperly restrained in the
exercise of its necessary rights and powers as an
independent settlement."
With this mild warning to the British from Washington,
Liberia was left to fend for itself. And the British
resistance continued.
Governor Roberts, in a message to the legislative
council dated January 18, 1845, recited the reiterated
position of the British as communicated to him by Commodore
Jones of H.M. Ship Penelope. "The Liberian settlers," said
Commodore Jones, "have asserted rights over the British
subjects alluded to [traders on the coast] which appear to
be ... inadmissible on the grounds on which Liberia's
settlers endeavor to found them For the rights in question,
those imposing customs duties and limiting the trade of
foreigners by restrictions, are sovereign rights, which can
only be lawfully exercises by sovereign and independent
states, within their own borders and dominions. I need not
remind your Excellency that this description does not apply
to `Liberia' which is not recognized as a subsisting state."
In reporting to his council this statement of Commodore
Jones, Governor Roberts presented an able argument in
refutation and then said, "I feel, gentlemen, that the
position assumed by the British officers ... will not be
sanctioned by the British Government. In the meantime, I
would advise [that] a statement, setting forth the facts in
relation to the misunderstandings that have arisen between
the Colonial Authorities and British subjects, trading at
Bassa Cove, be furnished the British Government by the
people of Liberia."
But this dignified and exceedingly diplomatic position
taken by Mr. Roberts, in reliance upon the British sense of
fair play, was of no avail. In April, 1845, Her Majesty's
brig Lily entered the harbor of Grand Bassa, seized a
Liberian schooner, the John Seys, on suspicion of being
engaged in the slave trade, and took it to Sierra Leone for
adjudication. Here the schooner was fully acquitted of the
slaving charge by the admiralty court. But the entire cost
of the proceeding was assessed against the vessel and the
British continued to hold the John Seys on the pretext that
the Liberian settlers possessed no sovereign rights, that
they were not authorized to establish a national flag, and
that the John Seys was therefore a vessel having no flag, no
national character.
This was the last straw. Governor Roberts was now
arguing on familiar ground. "I am decidedly of opinion,"
said he, "that the Commonwealth of Liberia, notwithstanding
its connection with the Colonization Society, is a sovereign
independent state, fully competent to exercise all the
powers of government ... [and that] the citizens of Liberia,
as an infant Republic, entered into a league or compact with
the Society, confiding to them the management of certain
external concerns.... In this no surrender of sovereignty as
a body politic was ever contemplated by the Liberians or
understood by the Society.... That an arrangement so novel
and without precedent should in its operations experience
some jarrings is not surprising.... We have associated the
idea that colonies have always commenced their existence in
a state of political subjection to and dependence on a
mother country, and for that reason could not be sovereign
states nor exercise the powers of sovereignty until the
dependence was terminated. Hence we often talk as if
Liberia needed to go through the same operation. But
Liberia never was such a colony; she never was in that state
of dependence, and therefore needs no such process in order
to become a sovereign state."
It is significant, and certainly speaks volumes for the
soundness of Mr. Roberts' argument, that a full century
later, Dr. Huberich, a world-renowned authority on
international law, reached the same conclusion as did the
Liberian Governor, and by the same general line of
reasoning.
"That settlement," says Dr. Huberich, speaking of the
landing at Cape Mesurado, "marks the beginning of a new
state, not the settlement of a colony. The settlers did not
retain any political connection or remain in subordination
to any foreign power. They created a state of their own....
As an independent sovereign state the settlement had power
to extend its frontiers, and acquire sovereignty over the
territories acquired by it, and to subject all persons,
whether its own citizens or foreigners, to its laws and the
jurisdiction of its courts, in the same manner and subject
to the same limitations as are imposed by international law
on all states. The British and French Governments were,
therefore, wrong in their contentions that the Settlement
could not acquire additional territory, and subject the
foreign traders to the laws of the Settlement extended over
the new acquisitions. It had the right to subject foreign
vessels within its territorial waters to its regulations and
port charges, and impose customs duties on foreign imports."
Certain as he was that Liberia possessed and always had
possessed the rights of a sovereign power, Governor Roberts
nevertheless recognized the confusion that existed in
people's minds because of the peculiar relationship with the
Colonization Society. He felt that the time had come to
sever that relationship; that his country was not ready for
self-government.
"That some measures should be adopted," said the
Governor to his legislative council, "which may possibly
relieve us from the present embarrassments is very clear,
but how far it is necessary to change our relationship with
the Colonization Society for that purpose is a matter for
deep consideration.... In my opinion, it only remains for
the Government of Liberia, by formal act, to announce her
independence- that she is now and always has been a
sovereign independent state; and that documents of this
proceeding, duly certified by the Colonization Society, be
presented to the British and well as to other governments,
and by that means obtain from Great Britain and the other
powers just and formal recognition of the Government of
Liberia."
Governor Roberts was not unmindful of the fact that,
sovereign or no sovereign, Liberia owed its existence to the
Society. Continuing, he said: "We should remembers with
feelings of deep gratitude the obligations we are under to
the American Colonization Society; they have made us what we
are, and they are deeply interested in our welfare; and I
firmly believe they will place no obstructions in the way of
our future advancement and final success."
So the question of sovereignty and independence were
referred to the Society. On receipt of the Society's reply
an extra session of the council was called, meeting July
13-15, 1846. After a calm dispassionate discussion of the
issues a call was authorized for a special election to
determine whether the people were prepared to assume full
responsibility for their government. The vote was taken on
October 27, 1846, a slight majority voting in the
affirmative, about two-thirds of the electorate
participating. This result was disappointing, but was
clearly incumbent on the Governor and council to proceed.
The matter accordingly came before the next session of
the legislature in January, 1847. That body seemed to be
closely divided and a serious struggle impended. But
Governor Roberts brought matters to a sudden head by
introducing a resolution to determine whether the wishes of
the people as expressed in the special election should be
complied with. This floored the opposition and a resolution
was adopted ordering an election for delegates to a
constitutional convention.
The sessions of the convention commended in Monrovia on
July fifth and continued until the twenty-sixth. A draft of
a proposed constitution had been prepared by Professor Simon
Greenleaf of the Harvard Law School. Mr. Greenleaf came of
an old New England family and was a leading member of the
Massachusetts bar. His TREATISE ON THE LAW OF EVIDENCE is
still regarded as a legal classic. He had become deeply
interested in the Liberia project and was president of the
Massachusetts Colonization Society.
The Greenleaf draft was transmitted to the convention
by the American Colonization Society with its
recommendation, and shortly thereafter with its request that
a clause be added to the effect that title to the territory
should remain vested in the Society. This draft
constitution was bitterly denounced by one of the members of
the convention, who presented a substitute which he
represented as his own, but which was found to be almost
identical with the Greenleaf proposal. The Society's
request for a clause retaining title was vehemently debated
and finally rejected, with the suggestion that this was a
matter to be settled between the Society and the new
Government.
Finally, after weeks of painstaking work, the Greenleaf
constitution, with a few changes, was adopted, subject to
confirmation by popular vote.
Meanwhile, and as a part of the work of the convention,
a "Declaration of Independence" was adopted and on July 26
was signed by all the delegates. Of this document, Dr.
Huberich says, "A a state paper the Declaration of
Independence is characterized by a calm dignity and a clear
presentation of the facts of the historical evolution of
Liberia.... It is not a declaration of political
independence, for the Liberian community was from the moment
of its establishment a free, sovereign and independent
State.... The Liberian Declaration of Independence is a
political manifesto. It is an appeal addressed to the
Nations of the World to recognize Liberia as a member of the
Family of Nations, with all the rights and privileges of a
free and independent sovereign State.
Before adjourning, the convention adopted a flag,
similar to that of the United States, but with eleven rather
than thirteen red and white stripes, representing the eleven
members who constituted, and with a single star in the blue
field.
An election was called forthwith, and of the votes
actually cast a substantial majority confirmed the adoption
of the constitution. Joseph Jenkins Roberts was elected as
first President of the Republic of Liberia. The opposition
to the constitution as presented had, however, continued,
especially in the Sinoe area, and manifested itself by a
considerable number of the colonists' refraining from
voting, largely because of sympathy with the plea of the
Society that it retain title to the territory, leaving the
new Government somewhat in the position of a political
tenant. Had all the qualified voters gone to the polls it
is probable that the constitution would still have been
adopted, but by a very small margin.
During the first week of the convention sessions the
British sloop-of-war Favorite arrived at Monrovia. It
carried authority from Lord Palmerston, Prime Minister of
England, for the commanding officer, Captain Murray, R.N.,
in the event of a declaration of independence and
sovereignty, to salute the Liberian flag and to give
assurance that it would be respected by citizens of Her
Majesty's Government.
Thus, with the adoption of the Declaration of
Independence and the formation of the Republic, British
opposition to Liberia's exercise of sovereignty ceased.
But, as will be seen, the attack in its political
independence was to be replaced by nutcracker tactics by
both British and French, exerted upon her boundaries.
The European powers, generally, followed the lead of
Britain in recognizing the new Republic, but it remained for
Abraham Lincoln, in 1862, to bring about similar action by
the United States.
Mr. Roberts served as President from January of 1848
until 1856, and again from 1872 to 1876. He died in
Monrovia February 24, 1876, one of Liberia's truly great
men. It is in his honor that Roberts Field is named, the
great air base built during World War II by the United
States Army Air Forces.
The period of emigration to Liberia may roughly be
considered as extending to about 1867. At that time,
according to the records of the Colonization Society, 13,136
settlers had gone to Liberia, including 1,227 who settled in
"Maryland in Liberia." In addition there were 5,722
recaptured slaves sent by the United States Government.
After 1867 emigration declined and those who then came are
perhaps not to be counted as "settlers." Rather they are
people who moved to an already settled Liberia to join their
fortunes with those of their race who had become the proud
citizens of the Republic. LIBERIA, AMERICA'S AFRICAN
FRIEND, R. Earle Anderson. Chapel Hill, N.N.: University of
North Carolina Press, 1952, p. 75-82
LIBERIA'S SURVIVAL DUE TO HIS `VIGOROUS MANAGEMENT'
Joseph Jenkins Roberts was born at Norfolk, Virginia,
March 15, 1809. He was free born and received a liberal
education in his native State. Accompanied by two younger
brothers, one of whom later became bishop and the other a
physician, he sailed on the Harriet and arrived at Monrovia,
March 24, 1829. He engaged in mercantile pursuits and his
trading firm became one of the most prosperous in the
Colony, owning its own vessels and trading posts on the
Coast and in the interior. From the outset of his career in
Liberia he took a keen interest in the affairs of the
Colony. In 1833, scarcely four years after his arrival,
Roberts was appointed High Sheriff, and was one of a
committee sent to the United States to present a memorial of
the colonists to the Society. In the succeeding year
Roberts addressed a communication to the Society accusing
certain prominent Liberians of being engaged in the slave
trade, which resulted in the enactment of stringent laws
against the trade. In 1839 Governor Buchanan appointed
Roberts to lead the expedition against Gatoomba, a mission
that was carried out in a brilliant manner. Upon the death
of Buchanan (September 3, 1841) Roberts, as Lieutenant
Governor became the Chief of State. On January 20, 1842,
Roberts was appointed Governor, which office he held until
1848 when he became President of the Republic. He was
re-elected President in 1849, 1851 and 1853, and was again
elected in 1871 and 1873, serving until 1876. He declined
nomination for a new term on the ground of age and enfeebled
health. Upon termination of his fourth term the Trustees of
Donations for Education in Liberia appointed him President
of Liberia College (1856) and later (1861) Professor of
Jurisprudence and International Law which position he held
until the time of his death. It was one of the great
ambitions of Roberts to establish in Liberia an institution
of higher learning, and he succeeded in having the
Legislature pass the necessary legislation and grant a site
for the College. Of his work as Governor and President, Sir
Harry Johnston says: "Roberts had rendered great services to
the Liberian Republic, only to be matched by those of
Ashmun. It is possible that but for his vigorous management
the State might never have had any independent existence at
all, but have drifted into such a condition as to render
annexation by Sierra Leone a necessity for the welfare of
West Africa." Roberts' public services as Governor are
dealt with in this and the succeeding Chapter. Of his
services as first President and in the succeeding years may
be mentioned the brilliant work of guiding the Republic in
the first decade of its existence, his success in obtaining
the recognition of the Republic by some of the Great Powers
of Europe, due largely to his rare tact in negotiation and
his charm of manner and vigorous convincing personality.
Roberts continued his public services after the expiration
of his first eight years' incumbency of the presidential
office. He led the expedition sent in aid of Maryland in
Liberia and was largely instrumental in bringing about the
incorporation of that State in the Republic. Roberts
married Jane Rose, the daughter of C. M. Waring. Roberts
died in Monrovia, February 24, 1876, as few weeks after the
termination of his last term in office. THE POLITICAL AND
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF LIBERIA, Charles Henry Huberich. NY:
Central Book Co., Inc., 1947, p. 770, 771, 1728. The latter
page, Subject-Index, contains very many page citations on
Roberts.
DEVOTED HIS LIFE TO LIBERIA
ROBERTS, JOSEPH JENKINS (Mar. 15, 1809-Feb. 24, 1876), first
president of Liberia, West Africa, was born of free, colored
parents at Petersburg, Va. having seven-eights or more of
white blood. He married at an early age in Virginia, but
lost his wife, and in 1829 he migrated to Liberia with his
widowed mother and younger brothers and there became a
merchant. The governor of the colony at the time, Thomas H.
Buchanan, a white appointee of the American Colonization
Society, was having trouble with the natives, who were not
reconciled to the invasion of the American freedmen. During
the fighting with the Dey and Golah tribes, Roberts became
one of Buchanan's most efficient leaders. Owing to his
energetic work, most of the more threatening natives were
reduced to submission. He then made every effort to make
friends with the natives, and, after Buchanan died, he was
appointed in January 1842 the first colored man to become
governor of Liberia, at that time, however comprising only
the northern part of what is now its best territory.
Although the colony of Maryland was not formally a part of
Liberia until 1857, its governor, John Russwurm gave Roberts
full cooperation. The necessity of organizing the country,
pacifying the natives, and repelling the illicit slave
traders, called for larger revenues than Roberts or Russwurm
had. Accordingly, they decided to lay import duties on good
brought to Liberia. This precipitated grave international
difficulties, for Liberia was not a sovereign country, nor
was it, on the other hand, a recognized colony of the United
States. The British approached the United States on the
subject but received a non-committal answer. Since positive
action seemed to be necessary, Roberts, after strengthening
his treaties with the native tribes, visited the United
States in 1844 in the hope of adjusting the matter. At such
a difficult time, when the question of the annexation of
Texas was forcing the slavery question to the front, the
American government avoided taking any strong action in
defense of Liberia, and the American Colonization Society
gave up all claims to the colony.
He returned, continued his purchase of lands from the
chiefs, and in 1847 called a conference at which the new
republic of Liberia was proclaimed. He was elected as the
first president, and re‰lected in 1849, 1851, and 1853, he
served his country carefully and wisely. As soon as the new
nation was proclaimed, he hurried to England. His
unexpected success there was due largely to his own
character and finesse. He was a man of intelligence and
poise, slight and handsome, with olive skin ands crisp hair.
He was an excellent conversationalist and had the manners of
a gentleman. His second wife, Jane (Waring) Roberts, to
whom he was married in Monrovia in 1836, was a woman of
education and spoke excellent French. In Europe he received
unusual attention. He signed a commercial treaty in 1849
with Great Britain, which recognized Liberia as an
independent nation and gave Englishmen freedom of domicile.
Before he left England, ten thousand dollars was raised by
his English friends and given to him to buy the territory
between Liberia and Sierra Leone, where the slave trade was
flourishing. Later he visited France and Belgium, where he
was received by Leopold I, and also Holland and Prussia. In
1852 he again visited France, where he was received by the
prince president, afterward Napoleon III. These visits were
largely instrumental in obtaining speedy recognition of
Liberia. After finishing his term he continued to be active
in the interests of Liberia, even to the extent of taking
the field against rebellious natives. In 1856 he was
elected first president of the new College of Liberia and
continued in that office until his death. He visited Europe
again in 1854 and 1862, and on his return from the last trip
he was appointed Belgian consul in Liberia. In 1869 he
visited the United States, where he addressed the annual
meeting of the African Colonization Society at Washington on
AFRICAN COLONIZATION (1869). When there arose in Liberia
the financial difficulties with regard to a British loan (re
Edward James Roye) liberia came near revolution. At the age
of 63 and already broken in health by his long service, he
was again elected to the presidency in 1871. Re‰lected, he
served until January 1876 and died at Monrovia in February.
W. E. B. Du Bois in DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY, Dumas
Malone, ed., Vol VII, Part 2, p. 10,11. NY: Scribners,
1963. (A number of references given at end of article.)
(Dr. Du Bois (1868-1963) was a prominent editor and author;
see WHO WAS WHO, Vol. IV, p. 266.
Joseph J. Roberts was the son of "Aunty Robos"
according to WHO WAS WHO, Historical Volume, rev. ed. 1967,
page 518. Chicago: Who's Who, Inc., 1967.
ALL HAIL, LIBERIA, HAIL!
LIBERIA, a republic on the southwestern edge of the west
coast of Africa, just west of the Gulf of Guinea. It has
about 350 mi. of coastline facing directly on the south
Atlantic, and its boundaries extend inland for an average
distance of about 120 mi., with a maximum depth of about 190
mi. The area of Liberia is 43,000 sq. mi., about as big as
the state of Ohio. In addition to the Atlantic frontage on
the southwest, it is bounded on the northwest by Sierra
Leone, on the north and northeast by Guinea, and on the east
by the Ivory Coast. The Liberian littoral was once known as
the Grain Coast because the "grains of paradise," a pepper,
which was an important item of export. The settlement near
the present capital, Monrovia, of freed slaves from the
United States was responsible for the name Liberia.
Monrovia commemorates James Monroe, during whose
presidential term the first settlement was made.
Robertsfield, the countries chief airport, and Robertsport
recall the name of Liberia's first president, Joseph J.
Roberts, whose term of office began July 26, 1847. (The
Liberian national anthem is titled, "All Hail, Liberia,
Hail!.) COLLIERS ENCYCLOPEDIA, 1965, vol. 14, p. 549
LIBERIAN ADVENTURES CAPTIVATE STUDENTS
A greasy rat roast baking in the oven. Little children
licking their fingers after gobbling down smokey monkey
meat. Sweet potato greens fried in fish oil.
These delectables didn't titilate the taste buds of
students at Huntington Intermediate School. In fact, they
turned up their noses when told about the tasty dishes by
African missionary Emma Mitchell.
Mrs. Mitchell spoke to special education classes last
week about her mission to Liberia. She captivated students
for more than an hour with tales of her adventures.
"I lived in a mud hut at first, 12 miles outside of
Monrovia, the capital of Liberia," she told the classes as
she projected slides of her experiences into a screen.
Using simple words, but vivid descriptions, she
recounted the life she led in Africa and the people she met.
At times she interjected African phrases and encouraged the
children to repeat them with zest. Soon they were shouting
"Good Morning" in African as if they'd known the language
for years.
"Liberians speak 28 different dialects so we teach them
English," she told the students.
Mrs. Mitchell was a junior in college when she decided
to be a missionary. She has spent three separate terms in
Africa, each lasting about three and a half years. She
plans to return with her husband this spring to start a new
mission sponsored by St. Timothy's Holiness Church in
Newport News.
In the mission schools, people of all ages come to get
an education, she explained. "It's not unusual to have 18
and 20 year olds in first and second grade. But it's hard
to get girls to come to school," she said. Many Liberians
do not think it is important for a girl to have an
education.
Huntington students grimaced as Mrs. Mitchell flashed
pictures of an African funeral procession on the screen.
"They decorate their bodies with chicken blood and white
chalk to chase evil spirits away from the dead person," said
Mrs. Mitchell.
Women in Liberia age very fast, she continued. "They
look like 60 when they are only in their 30s."
Carver Foreign Mission where Mrs. Mitchell taught was
started in 1960 and she was one of the first missionaries
there. Now over 300 students are enrolled in classes that
go through the sixth grade.
"Everyone wears a uniform in school so the rich child
doesn't embarrass the poor child who can't afford nice
clothes," she said.
Liberians look just like Afro-Americans, said Mrs.
Mitchell. "You can't tell us apart until we open our
mouths," she laughed.
They don't wear big bush hairdos, though, she said.
But braids are very stylish. She showed the group a picture
of one girls who had 62 braids in her hair.
Monrovia is a very beautiful city, she told the
students, as she showed them slides of huge new government
buildings and lovely landscaped streets. But just a few
miles outside the capital are mud huts and villages.
Sometimes she and the other missionaries would trek
through the bush country visiting tribal villages. She
would sleep on the dirt floor of the mud huts with a
mosquito net over her. This was not only to keep off
insects, but also to offer some protection from other creepy
crawlers such as snakes and lizards and scorpions.
If something crawled on you at night, you didn't dare
scream, she told the students. "What you might scream at
during the night, the little children play with during the
day. Their toys are living things.
Men in Liberian villages have many wives, she said.
And women often give away their children to missions.
Diseases such as tuberculosis are widespread.
The weather may have something to do with the health of
the people, said Mrs. Mitchell. Liberia has two seasons.
One is six moths of constant rain. The other is a six month
dry season.
Living in a mud hut during the rainy season is not a
very pleasant experience and many huts have to be repaired
after the rain is over. Some Africans are now building
homes from zinc.
In spite of the seasons, Liberia is green all year
around, Mrs. Mitchell said.
She also showed pictures of the Firestone Rubber
Plantation which has a 99 year lease in Liberia.
After the slide show, she displayed several relics from
the country and let some of the students model tribal
clothes. Ellen Betts Rowe in the Newport News DAILY PRESS,
Feb. 19, 1975, p. 8 (includes picture showing native dress)
EMERGING AFRICA
Bloody skirmishes were not uncommon in the early days
of the colony. History has it that one particular attack of
the natives resulted in their capture of a cannon fortifying
the original settlement on what is now known as Fort Hill,
Monrovia. While the majority of the colonists fled, one of
them, Matilda Newport, reportedly offered to show the
natives how to use the cannon. After the curious natives
congregated in front of the weapon for instruction, she
fired it at point-blank range, thereby routing the enemy and
rallying her own retreating forces. For this legendary
exploit, Matilda Newport became famous in early Liberian
history and is today remembered on the annually celebrated
Matilda Newport Day (December 1).
In 1839, the various settlements united to form a
Commonwealth of Liberia under Governor Thomas Buchanan, a
cousin of the American President, James Buchanan. Eight
years later a Constitution and a Bill of Rights, modeled
after those of the United States were promulgate. On July
26, 1847, a Declaration of Independence proclaimed the
territory a free and independent state.
Recognition by Great Britain followed in 1848, and by
France in 1852. Other nations followed suit, although
opposition of the slave-holding southern states delayed the
recognition of the United States until 1862 during the
Presidency of Abraham Lincoln.
Manufacturing cities in Europe soon became aware of
the inexhaustible supply of tropical and subtropical raw
products in West Africa, and Liberia with its underdeveloped
natural resources offered them a choice temptation. England
and France eventually began a campaign against Liberia with
the ultimate objective of removing her from the map of
Africa. Their main fear was that the free Negroes who were
entering the country might find access to British and French
possessions and give the native population politically
"dangerous" ideas.
Consequently, England and France robbed Liberia of
thousands of valuable agricultural and forest lands. In
1908 England brought false charges against the country and
followed these up with a fruitless attempt to take military
possession of Monrovia. The United States, however,
intervened in Liberia's favor during the administration of
Theodore Roosevelt and prevented further European meddling.
Liberia was beset with further difficulty during the
world-wide depression of the 1930's. The seriousness of the
situation was underlines by the international scandal
revolving around the reported continuance of a thriving
forced labor trade condoned by corrupt Liberian officials.
The League of Nations corroborated certain of the charges
made and implicated a number of high officials, including
the Vice President, who was forced to resign.
During this period Liberia's economic position was
severely weakened by its inability to meet payments on a
number of international loans negotiated for normal national
upkeep. As a result of Liberia's indebtedness, the League
proposed a state of international receivership for the
country, but was unable to overrule Liberia's own rejection
of the plan. The British Government later tried
unsuccessfully to induce the United States to administrate
Liberia as a protectorate.
The crisis passes when the Firestone Company of America
absorbed the defaulted international loans, which the
Liberian Government eventually paid in 1952, 15 years before
maturation date. Since World War II Liberia has enjoyed a
period of considerable economic development under the
capable administration of President-elect William Tubman.
NEGRO HERITAGE LIBRARY, EMERGING AFRICAN NATIONS AND THEIR
LEADERS, Vol. I, Lancelot Evans, ed. NY: M. W. Lads, 1964,
p. 308
THE CHANGING CONTINENT
Portuguese adventurers of the 15th century were most
likely the first white men to see and explore the Liberian
coast from Capt Mount to Cape Palmas.
The first permanent settlement of this territory at
Capt Mesurado in 1822 was sponsored by the American
Colonization Society, a private corporation which financed
the return of emancipated Negroes to Africa. By 1839., the
group of settlements which had sprung up in the interim had
found it mutually advantageous to join forces and to
establish a commonwealth. Liberia's first governor was
Thomas Buchanan, a cousin of James Buchanan, the 15th
president of the United States. Eight years later, on July
26, the commonwealth proclaimed itself an independent
republic.
For the remainder of the 19th century, Liberia was
ruthlessly carved up by a host of European nations, which
were interested not only in exploiting its natural
resources, but also in preventing it, as a nation of free
Negroes, from becoming a base for the dissemination of
politically dangerous ideas to colonial territories in
adjacent areas.
Soon after the turn of the century, the United States
directly intervened to save the country from financial ruin,
made imminent as a result of a series of disastrous foreign
loans negotiated largely through British concessionaires.
Particularly hard hit by the Depression of the 1930's,
Liberia found itself further humiliated by an international
scandal involving a number of corrupt government officials
who were condoning a thriving forced-labor trade.
Due to its strategic value, Liberia became an important
base for Allied military operations in Africa during World
War II. The country did not become financially solvent,
however, until its defaulted loans were paid off by the
Firestone Corporation, when then invested heavily in the
development of many new rubber plantations. The wealth
flowing out from this booming industry has helper to improve
public-health and educational facilities in the country....
REFERENCE LIBRARY OF BLACK AMERICA, Book I, H. A. Ploski,
comp. and ed., et al. NY: Bellwether Publishing Co., 1971,
p. 183
Liberia is Africa's oldest republic. It was originally
intended to be a home for freed American slaves under the
auspices of the American Colonization Society (founded
1816). The society established a small colony at Cape
Mesurado (Montserrado) in 1821-22. In late 1822 Jehudi
Ashmun, a Methodist minister, became the director of the
settlement and Liberia's real founder. In 1824 the colony
was named Liberia, and its principal settlement was named
Monrovia. Joseph Jenkins Roberts, Liberia's first non-white
governor, proclaimed Liberian independence in 1847, expanded
its boundaries, and worked to end the illicit slave trade on
Africa's western coast....
President William V. S. Tubman was Liberia's president
from 1944 until his death in 1971. His successor was
overthrown in a 1980 coup that terminated more than a
century of rule by the True Whig Party and also marked the
end of Americo-Liberians' long political domination over the
indigenous, inland-dwelling Africans.... THE NEW
ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA, 1991, vol. 7, p. 331
EDUCATION IN LIBERIA
... The strictest economy was universally applied (in
1920) both as a matter of necessity and of policy.
Education, in particular, was bound to suffer as Government
subsidies were cut to the bone, and one of the first victims
of this austerity was Liberia College, which had been for
over 60 years the country's principle centre of learning and
the pride of its citizens
This college had been founded in 1856 as a result of
the efforts of Dr. Simon Greenleaf and other prominent
Massachusetts citizens whom the Rev. John Payne, a
missionary of the Protestant Episcopal Church, had
approached in 1848 for assistance in establishing a
Theological School at Cape Palmas. Greenleaf and his
friends, who included George N. Griggs and Joel Giles,
raised funds to promote education in Liberia and to
establish a non-sectarian higher educational institution
rather than a Theological School. Greenleaf approached the
President of Liberia, J. J. Roberts, about the project and
consulted him on a number of details, including the choice
of a site. In 1850, on the advice of President Roberts, the
Legislature of Liberia granted a Charter to the proposed
College and in the following year it incorporated a Board of
Trustees, and assigned 100 acres of land at Clayashland to
help support the institution.
It was not until 1856, three years after Greenleaf's
death, that construction began on the three-storey brick
building on the outskirts of Monrovia. Roberts, who had
been succeeded by Benson as President of the Republic,
agreed to become the first President of the College and
personally supervised its construction which was completed
in 1861 at a cost of nearly 18,000 dollars. It is symbolic
of Liberia's devotion to education that the country's first
President was the head of its first institution of higher
learning. Nearly all later Presidents were closely
associated with the College at some time in their career and
no less than three served, like Roberts, as Presidents of
the College.
It is also significant that the Americans, who had
played so important a part in helping to establish Liberia
as a Colony and later as an independent State, were so
largely responsible for the setting up of its first national
institution of higher learning. Simon Greenleaf,
incidentally, was also President of the Massachusetts
Colonization Society and the author of a draft Constitution
for the Republic which, after being modified in Liberia and
approved by the Constitutional Convention, became the
country's basic law. American supporters of Liberia College
collected 22,000 dollars and some 4,000 books of which 600
came from Harvard College.
The Liberian Government, for its part, granted the
College 20 acres of land at Monrovia for a campus site and
1,000 acres of unoccupied land to be selected by the
Trustees anywhere in the Republic. Almost as soon as the
College began to operate as an independent institution the
Government took over the task of its financial management.
By 1904, the Government was spending 10,000 dollars a year
on the College- a substantial portion of the entire
appropriation for education.
Some of the best brains in the country were at various
times induced to teach at the College, including Alexander
Crummell, a graduate of Cambridge University in England.
Dr. Edward W. Blyden, an eminent Negro scholar born in the
West Indies, Garretson W. Gibson,m Arthur Barclay, Charles
D. B. King, and Edwin J. Barclay. The last four, like
Roberts, served as Chief Executives of the Republic, so
strengthening the support which the College has consistently
received from the Government.
But the College also saw difficult days including
periods when, owing to lack of funds, teaching staff and
adequately qualified students, it had to close down
altogether or move essential courses elsewhere. The first
of these blows to education in Liberia occurred in 1895,
when the President of the Republic, Joseph J. Cheeseman,
ordered the College to be closed following unfavourable
reports sent to the Board of Trustees by Professor Cook, who
had been sent from the United States to be Head of its
Industrial Department. Cook eventually became President of
the College but the courses which took place during his
administration were held at the College of West Africa, and
it was not until William D. Coleman became President of the
Republic that the Government made a determined effort to
re-open the College and guarantee its financial security by
a fixed annual grant. As the Board of Managers noted in
their statement on the re-opening of the College in 1900, it
was Coleman who called the attention of the Legislature to
"the duty devolving upon the people of Liberia to take upon
themselves the responsibility of promoting higher
education...." Clarence Lorengo Simpson, THE MEMOIRS OF C.
L. SIMPSON, Former Liberian Ambassador to Washington and to
the Court of St. James. THE SYMBOL OF LIBERIA, p. 125-125.
London: The Diplomatic Press and Publishing Co., [1961]
Since 1939 education has been compulsory for children
between the ages of six and 16 and is free at the primary
and secondary schools. In 1974 Liberia became a full member
of the West African Council in order to provide an
international yardstick for measuring the quality of its
education.
The government provides for the education of teachers
and sponsors the employment of foreign teachers.
International aid has also enabled the government to expand
the quality and availability of education. There are
several vocational schools, including the Booker Washington
Agricultural and Industrial Institute at Kataka, a
government school. Advanced training is provided at the
University of Liberia (1951) in Monrovia, at Cuttingtom
University College (1889) in Suakoko (Episcopalian), and at
the William V. S. Tubman College of Science and Technology
(1978) in Harper. Several community colleges have also been
established in the Monrovia area. The Monrovia Torrino
Medical College trains paramedical students. Liberians who
study abroad receive advanced training under a government
foreign scholarship program and from donor agencies.
ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA, 1991, vol. 29, p. 893
Six years of primary school education are followed by
three in middle school and three in high school. Only about
half of the children of school age, however, attend school.
The University of Liberia (founded as Liberia College, 1862;
university, 1951) is in Monrovia. Ibid., vol. 7, p. 331
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY
In this crowded year (1721) President Monroe secured a
strip of land on the African coast as a home to which
liberated slaves might return and build a civilization of
their own. The coasts of Liberia were the shores from which
many slave were kidnapped before the slave trade was finally
destroyed (1808). The town of Liberia was appropriately
named Monrovia.
The Virginians were intensely interested in Liberia.
Judge Bushrod Washington, of Mt. Vernon, was president of
the Association (National Colonization Society, Washington,
D.C., organized December, 1816) which pushed this benevolent
work. Much might have been accomplished from Liberia as a
base, especially by the patronage of the Federal government
(which was ultimately expected), had not the Civil War made
the plans negatory. THRU CENTURIES THREE, W. H. T. Squires.
Portsmouth, Va.: Printcraft Press, 1929, p. 399
There were, nevertheless, vague hopes that the shipment
of free Negroes to Africa would somehow lead to the ultimate
elimination of the slave system. The notion persisted for
decades that if enough slaves could be freed and colonized,
the final result would be that all would go back to, or be
forcibly deported to the land of their fathers, or
elsewhere.
It was also contended that colonization was the best
means of bringing Christianity to Africa and reducing the
African slave trade by persuading the Africans to "drive off
greedy slavers and welcome American traders seeking tropical
products." One authority estimates that over a period of
years, the organization saved an average of 20,000 Africans
annually from being sold into slavery. The society also
tended to promote national unity until about 1840, since all
sections of the country were represented in its membership.
Liberia, on the western coast of Africa, was chosen as
the place to which free Negroes should be sent. By 1830,
about 1420 had been transported to that country.
The Nat Turner insurrection in 1831 revived interest in
the colonization movement, even though the succeeding
General Assembly refused, by a narrow margin, to make funds
available for its promotion. There had been hope that the
federal government would appropriate money for the movement,
but these proved vain. Another handicap was that the
proslavery argument advanced by Thomas R. Dew, which
appeared at about this time, was critical of colonization,
and made it doubly difficult to persuade future Assemblies
to give financial aid. In 1850 the General Assembly finally
appropriated $30,000 a year for five years to support
emigration. But the Civil War was approaching, and all
these efforts were largely futile, since a grand total of
fewer than 15,000 Negroes emigrated over the years, of whom
the American Colonization Society was responsible for about
12,000. Both Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln were
advocates of colonization.
Virginia Negroes were prominent in the colonization
movement. Lott Carey, who had taught himself to read and
write and had been made supervisor in a tobacco factory,
purchased his freedom and that of his family. He studied
for the ministry, and was the spiritual leader of the first
shipment of free blacks to Liberia in 1821. He was made
Vice-Agent of the settlement. He died there suddenly seven
years later.
Joseph Jenkins Roberts was also born a slave in
Virginia [sic]. His emancipated parents had to leave the
state, under the act of 1806, which forced free Negroes to
leave within a year, and young Roberts went to Liberia in
1829. In 1841 he was made governor of the colony, and when
Liberia became a Republic seven years later, he was chosen
its first President. After the American Civil War, he was
re-elected President, and is credited with averting a
revolution at that time. VIRGINIA: THE NEW DOMINION, "The
Sable Cloud," Virginius Dabney. Garden City, NY: Doubleday,
1971, p. 230, 231
Outsider's knowledge of the west of Africa began with a
Portuguese sailor, Pedro de Cintra, who reached the Liberian
coast in 1461. Subsequent Portuguese explorers named Grand
Cape Mount, Cape Mesurado (Montserrado), and Cape Palmas,
all prominent coastal features. The area became known as
the Grain Coast because grains of Melegueta pepper, then as
valuable as gold, were the principal item of trade.
In the beginning of the 19th century the tide started
to rise in favor of the abolition of slavery, and the Grain
Coast was suggested as a suitable home for freed American
slaves. In 1818 two U. S. government agents and two
officers of the American Colonization Society (founded 1816)
visited the Grain Coast. After abortive attempts to
establish settlements there, an agreement was signed in 1821
between the officers of the society and local African chiefs
granting the society possession of Cape Mesurado. The first
American freed slaves landed in 1812 on Providence Island at
the mouth of the Mesurado River. They were followed shortly
by Jehudi Ashmun, a white American, who became the real
founder of Liberia. By the time Ashmun left in 1828 the
territory had a government, a digest of laws for the
settlers, and the beginnings of a profitable foreign
commerce. Other settlements were started along the St. John
River, at Greenville, and at Harper. In 1839 Thomas
Buchanan was appointed first governor. On his death in 1841
her was succeeded by Joseph Jenkins Roberts, a black man
born free in Virginia in 1809; Roberts enlarged the
boundaries of the territory and improved economic
conditions.... THE NEW ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA, 1991, vol.
29, p. 893
The American Colonization Society, organized on Dec.
28, 1816, sought to settle free American blacks in Africa.
In 1822 it established the colony of Liberia, to which 2,638
blacks migrated during the next decade. The society won
support from many clergy as well as from some leading free
blacks who believed that blacks would never receive just
treatment in America. Most free blacks, however, opposed
the scheme because they believed that its promoters were
primarily interested in removing the threat posed to the
institution of slavery by the presence of free blacks. They
were also repelled by the society's racist arguments, which
characterized them as an inferior, degraded class that
should be removed from the United States. The society
continued its efforts into the 20th century, although it was
never successful in convincing large numbers of blacks to
emigrate to Africa. By Ronald L. Lewis. Bibliography:
Staudenraus, Philip J., The African Colonization Movement
(1961). From Grolier's Academic American Encyclopedia;
downloaded from Tandy PC-Link On-Line Service, June 1990.
Having taken an early and lively interest in the
American Colonization Society, and written something on its
behalf, I was induced in the year 1819, to devote myself for
some time to the foundation of auxiliary societies
throughout the United States, the collection of funds, and
the selection of the first colonists. This led me to visit
all the principal towns, from Milledgeville, in Georgia, to
Portland, in Maine. As duty bound, and by choice led, I
invoked the aid of the ministers of all denominations, and
especially of my own, without distinction of party. For
visiting the former I was honoured with a printed pamphlet
by one "Sopater of Berea," addressed to Bishop Moore,
advising him to recall me to Virginia and to my duties at
home. While I received much kindness from ministers of all
denominations, I experienced still more from those of the
Episcopal Church....
In advocating the claims of the Colonization Society
from Northern pulpits, I always commended it for this, that,
however we might differ as to the subject of slavery, we
might all agree touching this mode of benefiting the African
race; and there has been a very general and happy agreement.
OLD CHURCHES, MINISTERS, AND FAMILIES OF VIRGINIA. Meade,
Vol. II, p. 362-363.
The people of Norfolk were not blind to the evils of
slavery. Thoughtful men complained of the inefficiency of
Negro labor and the diversion of the European immigration
from the South.... Considerations such as these no doubt
were influential in the forming of the Norfolk Colonization
Society, to aid in sending Negroes to Africa. In January,
1821, fifty Negroes sailed from Norfolk for Africa on the
NAUTILUS, with clothing, furniture, tools, etc. With the
vessel there were a number of native Africans, apparently
just rescued from slave dealers and on their way home. At
the sight of these uncivilized creatures mingling with their
American cousins, "all hearts were touched, and many eyes
were filled with tears. After the service numbers came
forward and joined the Society, while others gave
contributions. Several poor blacks gave their little mites
to their brethren who were going out." (Quote form Norfolk,
Va. HERALD, Jan. 1, 1821) NORFOLK HISTORIC SOUTHERN PORT,
by Thomas J. Wertenbaker, 2nd edition, edited by Marvin W.
Schlegel, p. 127. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press,
1962.
The legislature of Tennessee has passed a law granting
the sum of ten dollars to the Colonization Society for every
person deported from that state to Liberia. Norfolk, Va.
AMERICAN BEACON, Sept. 4, 1835.
ACCOUNTS FROM LIBERIA
Accounts from Liberia, via England, are to Jan. 25th.
Numerous letters have been received from the Colonists, from
recent emigrants, and from Bishop Scott, of the Methodist
Church, and from Bishop Payne of the Protestant Episcopal
Church. These all give encouraging accounts of Liberia.
The three emigrant vessels which sailed last November, the
Joseph Maxwell from Wilmington, N. C., the Linda Stewart
from Norfolk, and the Shirley from Baltimore, also the
Oriole, which sailed from New-York in October- had arrived
in safety, with three hundred and sixty emigrants. These,
so far as appears, are pleased with the country, have passed
safely through the acclimating fever, and are full of hope
and courage for the future. Bishop Payne, who is visiting
the Protestant Episcopal missionary stations in Liberia,
appears to be much pleased with what he has seen of the
country and its inhabitants. He had made arrangements for
extending the missionary operations of the Episcopal church
to Monrovia. President Roberts had returned from his recent
visit to England and France. The settlement of the Fishtown
territory had been resumed, with encouraging prospects. The
saw-mill at Buchanan was in successful operation.
A letter from John D. Johnson, who emigrated from
Williamsburg, N. Y. a few months since, contains the
following:
"I have not ability to describe the advantages to be
reaped in this country, nor have I the time. My business is
so much better than it ever was before, that I am constantly
occupied in attending to it.
This is a great country for men and women who love
liberty and love themselves, for money can be made here."
N. Y. OBSERVER. From THE VIRGINIA HISTORICAL REGISTER, Vol.
6, 1853, p. 115
SLAVES REJECTED LIBERTY IN LIBERIA
There was a theory in the 1800s among generally
well-intentioned people that the black and white races could
never live together side by side. One answer to this
incompatibility was to colonize all the free blacks in
Africa. Thomas Jefferson was among the first to propose
that emancipated slaves be removed to a remote land.
In 1816, a New Jersey minister spearheaded a series of
meetings that led to the creation of the American
Colonization Society. That same year the Virginia
legislature endorsed the idea of "an asylum beyond the
limits of the United States" and encouraged the federal
government to work on colonization plans.
The Episcopal Church in Virginia also endorsed the
idea. In addition to Jefferson, other prominent Virginia
politicians agreed with the principle, but falling, as it
did, in a philosophical middle ground, both proslavery
forces and abolitionists opposed the idea.
Despite opposition, the Colonization Society was formed
the following year with the high-minded goal of easing the
plight of the "free people of color" by packing them off to
a colony established for that purpose in Liberia. A plea
went out to state legislatures for funds to underwrite the
plan, and over the next decade more than 2,500 blacks
emigrated to Liberia.
In 1821, a group calling itself the Norfolk
Colonization Society met to adopt a formal constitution and
become an auxiliary to the national group. James Nimmo, the
first president, again offered lofty purposes for the
society, including giving to free blacks the freedom they
could not enjoy here, converting heathen tribes to religion
and promoting the civilization of Africa. He also indicated
that a ship in the Norfolk port was being outfitted for such
purposes.
It took Nat Turner's bloody rebellion in 1831, however,
for Virginians to really get fired up about the movement.
In December of that year, 350 blacks left the Norfolk port
aboard the "James Perkins" in what may have been less an
emigration and more a flight from the frightened whites.
In 1833, the Virginia Legislature created a statewide
commission to ascertain the number of free blacks willing to
emigrate to Liberia and also made an appropriation for that
purpose. The board determined that there were none in
Princess Anne County who wanted to leave.
The commission then requested that the courts appoint
local boards to investigate the matter and to also come up
with demographics such as age and sex of free blacks in each
county. In Princess Anne County, William Whitehurst and
Clerk of the Court John J. Burroughs comprised the local
board. Though the number of free blacks here was reduced
between 1830 and 1840 from 342 to 202, it appears that it
wasn't due to colonization.
One opinion on the matter may be found in a letter that
Burroughs wrote to the American Colonization Society in
1838. He was replying to the question of whether any blacks
in Princess Anne County had been willed to Liberia by their
masters when they died. Burroughs wrote that although a
number had been emancipated by will, no provisions had been
made for the emigration. He added that a number had been
made "comfortable" because their masters had left them "land
and property."
"I have endeavored to persuade some of the many free
people of color among us, to go to Africa," he wrote, "but
we have hitherto failed to our attempts. I attribute this
indifference to ignorance and the great ease with which they
procure the necessities of life and the mild and merciful
conduct of the whites."
He closes his letter, saying, "I should be gratified to
see a spirit of emigration manifesting itself among our free
people of color. May success crown your labours in the good
cause of colonization."
Though emigration societies hung on until after the
Civil War, their labors were never crowned with much more
success than that found in Princess Anne. Mary Reid Barrow
in VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON, Jan. 29, 1984
CALLED TO SERVE
Eight of the family of William Jackson (1757-1812) in
four generations were ministers. Two of them were known to
be members of the American Colonization Society. The
membership certificate of the Rev. Johannes E. Jackson
(1783-1845) of March, 1840, is illustrated in this
publication. It will be noted that it is signed by Henry
Clay, President of the Society.
Also, his brother, the Rev. William Jackson (1793-1844)
was an active member of the Board and Executive Committee of
the Colonization Society in New York and other places where
he resided.
The Jacksons are maternal ancestors of the editor.
(JACKSON SCRAPBOOK: CALLED TO SERVE, Volume 9 of the
TAZEWELL AND ALLIED FAMILIES SCRAPBOOKS, 1990)
DANGEROUS THREAT TO FUTURE OF THE NATION
For [Littleton Waller (1774-1860)] Tazewell this
uncomfortable situation developed when several petitions
from the American Colonization Society were referred to the
Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. The petitions
requested the United States government to set aside from the
annual revenue a suitable fund for the purpose of assisting
humane individuals willing to liberate and colonize their
slaves and for aiding free blacks who desired to emigrate to
a colony on the west coast of Africa. This measure would
commit the United States to the acquisition of territory
outside the territorial limits, for Monrovia, purchased by
the Colonization Society in 1821 and later known as Liberia,
was considered too small to accommodate a large influx of
blacks from the United States. Therefore, the Foreign
Relations Committee had the responsibility of investigating
the feasibility of the requests and making a report to the
Senate. After several weeks of deliberation, Tazewell wrote
and read to the Senate a lengthy report expressing the views
and recommendations of the members.
The United States government, Tazewell told the
senators, had every right to acquire new territory, either
by discovery, conquest, or negotiation. The precedent was
established by the procurement of Louisiana and Florida.
Acquisition of territory on the west coast of Africa,
however, was a different matter. This was a distant land,
not contiguous to the United States, and quite unlilkely to
be admitted into the Union as an equal member of the
confederation. Nor could the senators find among the
constitutionally enumerated powers of Congress any authority
to possess additional domain to provide for the common
defense or to promote the general welfare.
Other observations, while outside the realm of
responsibilities relegated to the committee, were of
particular concern to Tazewell and Nathaniel Macon, and they
took this opportunity to air their views. Tazewell posed a
primary question: If it were possible for the United States
to possess land on the coast of Africa, did the federal
government have the right to transport thither, at public
expense, any part of the nation's population? He answered
with a resounding no, terming the very thought a prologue
for dangerous consequences. Although the Colonization
Society's proposal currently applied only to a portion of
the black population, and partially upon a quasi-voluntary
basis, could not this precedent be used at some future time
to force emigration of both blacks and whites, urging them
by use of bounties and rewards to leave the country? Or
could not residents of the United States be encouraged by
oppression to accept financial aid to "fly from the land of
their birth"? Then Tazewell raised the most sensitive issue
of all: Could the federal government rightfully intrude
within the confines of a state for the purpose of uprooting
a portion of its inhabitants and locating them permanently
elsewhere? Most emphatically not. The Constitution of the
United States expressly denied the national government the
power to impair the political strength of any state by
reducing its population. Moreover, the framers of that
document wisely abstained from bestowing upon the government
they created any power whatever over the black population of
the country, whether this population was bond or free. "Any
attempt to endow the federal government with such a power,"
Tazewell reminded the Senate, "we know as an historical
fact, would have frustrated all the labours and defeated the
great objects of the patriot statesmen assembled for the
purpose of framing this plan of government." The proposal
made by the American Colonization Society, therefore,
constituted a contradiction of the very foundation of the
nation's governmental principles, namely that each state
should have the exclusive right to decide not only who were
black, but also who were free persons. Any attempt by
Congress to assume such authority would be a direct
violation of the Constitution and productive of consequences
terrible beyond imagination.
From constitutional arguments Tazewell turned to the
prohibitive costs of the colonization proposal. A modest
estimate, he believed, would be $100 for each person, and
the sum needed to transport merely the free Negroes would
exceed $28 million. Using the same formula, the initial
expense of colonizing the slave population would be at
minimum $190 million. This figure did not include the
compensation that the government would have to offer
slaveholders to induce them to release their property. The
amount involved in accomplishing this, Tazewell declared,
would baffle all calculations.
While praising the generous feelings and philanthropic
purposes of the Colonization Society, the report concluded
with a stern warning against the establishment of a
powerful, self-created organization which, although
numbering in its ranks many distinguished government
officials, could pose a dangerous threat to the future of
the nation. Should there be any collusion between the
society and the government to restrain or prevent the
exercise of constitutional powers or prerogatives, such an
organization, despite "the purity and intelligence of its
members, must be looked at with suspicion and distrust." On
this note Tazewell ended the report.
The Foreign Relations Committee did not deal with the
pros and cons of slavery as such, nor did Tazewell, even in
letters to his closest friends, speculate on the future of
the southern labor system. He was an indulgent master who
directed his overseers to treat slaves well, and his
reputation for kindness was so widespread among the Negroes,
said his daughter, Ann, that frequently in probate cases,
when slaves had to be sold to effect a division of property,
they would beg Tazewell to purchase them. Whenever possible
he did so. While obviously a man of humanitarian instincts,
Tazewell also was engaged in agriculture for profit, and
slaves were part of the system. Undoubtedly, he had
conflicting emotions, as did numerous plantation owners,
about the continuation of human bondage, but agitating the
matter without offering concrete and realistic solutions
seemed to him illogical and dangerous.... LITTLETON WALLER
TAZEWELL, by Norma Lois Peterson, p. 150-153.
Charlottesville, Va.: The University Press of Virginia, 1983
THE LAWS HAVE MADE THEIR CONDITION A SAD ONE
(The views of the father of L. W. Tazewell, above, on
slavery follow:)
I have chosen to invest my Executors with this
authority over my Lands, because I would not wish my Negroes
to be sold for the payment of my debts- They came to me by
the Laws of the Land & by the Laws of the Land they shall go
from me, for I have no power in justice to make their
Happiness pay for my Follies or extravagancies however
answerable for them the Laws may make them. As human Beings
the Laws have placed them in my poŸseŸsion- As their
Governor I have drawn the profits of their Labours,
rendering them out of such profits, as comfortable a support
as I could.
The Laws have made their condition a sad one, but I
will not make that condition worse by considering them as
Hogs or Horses- But into whosesoever hands they may fall I
implore their merciful government of them, for their
fidelity to me. As Men's Minds become more enlightened,
perhaps it maybe found that the good of Society does not
consist in tolerating this kind of servility- when this
event happens the Holders whoever they may be of such as
have served me will without incurring the imputation of
doing an Injury to to the public, be able to exercise that
liberality which then will be manifest. Extract of will of
Henry Tazewell (1753-1799), dated March 10, 1790. From
HENRY TAZEWELL: MOST POPULAR VIRGINIAN OF HIS DAY, 1992
TAZEWELL, HENRY (1753-1799), American lawyer; judge,
Virginia supreme court (1785-93) and chief justice
(1789-93); judge, Virginia court of appeals (1793); U.S.
senator (1794-99). His son LITTLETON WALLER (1774-1860) was
also a lawyer and politician; practiced in Norfolk, Va.
(1802-22); U.S. senator (1824-32); governor of Virginia
(1834-36); in retirement, honored as Virginia's first
citizen (1836-60). WEBSTER'S BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY, 1st
edition. Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam Co., 1965
PROVISIONAL CONSTITUTION AND ORDINANCES
FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES
Whereas Slavery, throughout its entire existence in the
United States, is none other than a most barbarous,
unprovoked, and unjustifiable War of one portion of its
citizens upon another portion ; the only conditions of which
are perpetual imprisonment, and hopeless servitude or
absolute extermination ; in utter disregard and violation of
those eternal and self-evident truths set forth in our
Declaration of Independence : Therefore,
WE, citizens of the United States, and the oppressed
people, who, by a recent decision of the Supreme Court are
declared to have no rights which the White Man is bound to
respect ; together with all other people degraded by the
laws thereof, Do, for the time being ordain and establish
for ourselves, the following Provisional Constitution and
Ordinances, the better to protect our Persons, Property,
Lives, and Liberties ; and to govern our actions. (From
A-MOULDERING: CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1858, 1992)
MORE SOURCES
Historical data covering the organization and
operations of the American Colonization Society, the
emigration of American free Negroes, their subsequent
struggles, etc., are voluminous. The records of the
American Colonization Society, THE AFRICAN REPOSITORY,
published by the Society, and records of the various State
Colonization Societies are the principal sources. The best
digested accounts are to be found in Sir Harry Johnston's
comprehensive treatise, LIBERIA (London, Hutchinson & Co.,
1906); Prof. Frederick Starr's LIBERIA (Chicago, 1913-
privately printed), LIBERIA- OLD AND NEW, by J. L. Sibley
(London, 1928), and especially Dr. Charles H. Huberich's
scholarly work THE POLITICAL AND LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF
LIBERIA (New York, 1943). (This is a note in LIBERIA,
AMERICA'S AFRICAN FRIEND, by R. Earle Anderson. Chapel
Hill, N.C., University of North Carolina Press, 1952, p.
288.)
THE NEW ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA, as noted herein, has
three articles on J. J. Roberts: Vol. 7, p. 331, Vol. 10,
p. 107, and Vol. 29, p. 893. (Chicago: Encyclop‘dia
Britannica, Inc., 1991)
An important source is the DICTIONARY CATALOG OF THE
SCHOMBURG COLLECTION OF NEGRO LITERATURE AND HISTORY. By
The New York Public Library. Boston; G. K. Hall, 1962. It
includes:
Armistead, Wilson. CALUMNY REFUTER BY FACTS FROM
LIBERIA: WITH EXTRACTS FROM THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF THE
COLOURED PRESIDENT ROBERTS... Presented to the Boston
Anti-Slavery Bazaar. NY: W. Harned, Anti-slavery Office,
1848.
Liberia College. PROCEEDINGS OF THE INAUGURATION OF
LIBERIA COLLEGE... Monrovia: Published by order of the
Legislature of Republic of Liberia, 1862.
Roberts, Joseph Jenkins. AFRICAN COLONIZATION. An
address delivered at the fifty-second annual meeting of the
American Colonization Society... NY: American Colonization
Society, 1869.
________. THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA. An address
delivered by the Hon. Joseph J. Roberts at the fifty-second
anniversary meeting of the American Colonization Society...
Washington, D.C.: Colonization Society Building, 1869.
Also the following from Howard University Library; note
especially JESSE E. MOORLAND CATALOG OF NEGRO LIFE AND
HISTORY, p. 787, 788, re two Brown citations, below.
Armistead, W. A. TRIBUTE FOR THE NEGRO, 1948, p.
524-526, 534.
Brown, H. Q. HOMESPUN HEROINES AND OTHER WOMEN OF
DISTINCTION, 1926, p. 46-49 [Jane Roberts (1809- ), wife of
J. J. Roberts]
Brown, W. W. THE BLACK MAN, 1863, p. 163-165.
Pendleton, L. A. A NARRATIVE OF THE NEGRO, 1912, p.
47,48,49.
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