{"title":"Slavery and the Troublesome Question","authors":"S. Lindsey","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv10h9dkd.7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv10h9dkd.7","url":null,"abstract":"Chapter 2 establishes the background and context for the colonization movement, examines motives of supporters and opponents, and examines the establishment of the Liberian colony. For ninety-three years, the American Colonization Society supports emigration of freed slaves and freeborn black people from the United States to Liberia, ultimately transporting 16,000 people across the ocean. It is the largest out-migration in American history.","PeriodicalId":420624,"journal":{"name":"Liberty Brought Us Here","volume":"39 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116655968","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"We Have Had War with the Natives","authors":"S. Lindsey","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv10h9dkd.14","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv10h9dkd.14","url":null,"abstract":"Agnes Harlan’s son Lewis is dying of malaria. Despite her fervent prayers and attentive care, she loses her oldest child. On average, 20 percent of every boatload of immigrants to Liberia dies of malaria in the first year. In Tolbert Major’s May 1839 letter to Ben, he includes a short note to another man, James Moore, in which he reveals that Agnes has lost two of her sons since arriving in Liberia. Tolbert asks Moore to contact George Harlan, Agnes’s former owner, to tell him the news. The chapter discusses risks to health in Liberia, similar health risks in America, the Liberian system known as “pawning,” and a recent war with some of the indigenous people.","PeriodicalId":420624,"journal":{"name":"Liberty Brought Us Here","volume":"24 1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115526016","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"May I But Safely Reach My Home","authors":"S. Lindsey","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv10h9dkd.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv10h9dkd.6","url":null,"abstract":"On Tolbert Major’s last day in America, he wakes at dawn in a room at the Staten Island Quarantine Grounds. He rouses his sons and then walks down to the pier to see the Luna, the vessel that will take him and his family to Liberia, Africa. Tolbert recalls the send-off ceremony held the previous day, July 4, 1836, when officials from the New York Colonization Society joined dozens of newly emancipated slaves and freeborn black people in singing hymns, praying, and listening to speeches. (The emigrants weren’t ill; the mayor had temporarily housed them at the quarantine grounds.) The next morning, Tolbert, his sons, his brother Austin, their former neighbor Agnes Harlan, and the other emigrants board the ship Luna and prepare to sail. The passengers endure seasickness and weeks of anticipation as they sail across the Atlantic. Every sunset leaves behind loved ones and everything that is familiar. Every sunrise tugs them toward a new life.","PeriodicalId":420624,"journal":{"name":"Liberty Brought Us Here","volume":"33 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128373221","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Affectionately, Your Friend and Brother","authors":"S. Lindsey","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv10h9dkd.17","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv10h9dkd.17","url":null,"abstract":"At about the same time that Tolbert and Austin Major, Agnes Harlan, and their families are starting over in Liberia, Ben Major and his wife and children are settling in Illinois. This chapter explores Ben’s complicated relationships with his brothers and brother-in-law. The men have different views on slavery and colonization, illustrating the range of attitudes other Americans had on these topics. Surprisingly, Ben remains closest to Joseph Major, his brother who continues to own slaves. Ben writes to Joseph, “You are well apprised of the sacrifices I made to secure myself and my family from the Curses of Slavery.”","PeriodicalId":420624,"journal":{"name":"Liberty Brought Us Here","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124205116","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Love of Liberty Brought us Here","authors":"S. Lindsey","doi":"10.5810/KENTUCKY/9780813179339.003.0021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5810/KENTUCKY/9780813179339.003.0021","url":null,"abstract":"Early on the morning of August 24, 1847, a single cannon shot booms from Monrovia’s Central Fort Hill to announce the dawn. The shot could have awakened the whole town, except most people are already up and preparing to celebrate the birth of their new republic: the country had officially declared its independence the month before. In fewer than three decades, Liberia had expanded from a tiny, almost-failed settlement into a commonwealth, and finally into a true republic. Many of Liberia’s citizens write about finding a new sense of personhood, dignity, and autonomy in Liberia. Many letter writers allude to the scripture Micah 4:4: “But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid. . . .”","PeriodicalId":420624,"journal":{"name":"Liberty Brought Us Here","volume":"14 3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134195488","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"I Want to See You and Your Wife and Children Very Bad","authors":"S. Lindsey","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv10h9dkd.25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv10h9dkd.25","url":null,"abstract":"After a silence of nearly four years, Tolbert Major writes again to Ben Major in 1847. He asks Ben to send writing paper, its scarcity accounting, in part, for the long delay between letters. Tolbert’s letter is filled with family news. He writes, “I want to see you and your wife and children very bad,” and asks Ben to send a drawing of him and his wife, Lucy, “for my children to look at when I am dead.” The relationships between enslaved people, their owners, and the owners’ families were complex, and this chapter explores that complexity. The chapter also explores the value colonists placed on education and the experiences of widows in Liberia.","PeriodicalId":420624,"journal":{"name":"Liberty Brought Us Here","volume":"42 2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"120900283","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"I Am a Free Man in a Free Country","authors":"S. Lindsey","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv10h9dkd.28","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv10h9dkd.28","url":null,"abstract":"Although nearly a year has passed since Liberia became a republic, Tolbert is still giddy. He writes to Ben in 1848, “It is my pride and joy that I am a free man in a free country and can enjoy the free mild and equal government which has just been established, and where I can have an equal share of republicanism.” He also thanks Ben for sending seeds, books, and botanical medicines. In the letter, Tolbert displays more sentiment than he has in the past, asking Ben and his wife to pray for him and writing, “I hope the Lord will make a way for me to see you all again this side of the grave.” He uncharacteristically closes his letter with “farewell.” It is his last letter to America. Austin Major also writes to Ben, catching him up on family news.","PeriodicalId":420624,"journal":{"name":"Liberty Brought Us Here","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115173573","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"We Have All Landed on the Shores of Africa","authors":"S. Lindsey","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv10h9dkd.11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv10h9dkd.11","url":null,"abstract":"After a voyage of more than six weeks, the Luna arrives at Monrovia, where Austin and Tolbert Major, their children, Agnes Harlan and her family, and the other passengers disembark and get their first glimpse of Africa. The Luna’s crew offloads supplies and picks up food and water for the trip to Bassa Cove, their new home. Three weeks later, Tolbert Major locates some hard-to-find paper and ink and writes a letter to Ben: “Dear Sir: We have all landed on the shores of Africa and got into our houses . . . none of us have been taken with the fever yet. We have a prospect of war with the natives.” It is the first of many letters the new settlers will exchange with the man who had once owned them.","PeriodicalId":420624,"journal":{"name":"Liberty Brought Us Here","volume":"10 3","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"113968336","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"We Stand in Great Need of Seed","authors":"S. Lindsey","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv10h9dkd.16","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv10h9dkd.16","url":null,"abstract":"Tolbert Major writes to Ben Major again in October 1840. He tells Ben that the supplies they brought to Liberia were stolen, and he asks Ben to send seeds and more supplies. The settlers struggle to establish themselves in Liberia, despite sometimes unkept promises of help from the American Colonization Society. Tolbert’s letters indicate that his relationship with Ben is evolving toward a relationship between peers—between the leader of one family and the leader of another—rather than the relationship between a slave and owner. This chapter also looks at how Governor Thomas Buchanan attempted to better meet the needs of the settlers.","PeriodicalId":420624,"journal":{"name":"Liberty Brought Us Here","volume":"37 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123522764","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}