Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Robert Murray
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
Free People Of Color ◽  
American Colonization Society ◽  
American Society ◽  
Free People

The introduction summarizes the content of the chapters and places the research in a broader context. This book focuses on the experiences and beliefs of the African American settlers and Africans in the colony of Liberia and on its earliest years as a republic after independence in 1847. Readers will notice that while Murray examines Liberia and Liberians broadly, he often focuses his analytical gaze upon the independent colony of Maryland in Liberia, established by the Maryland State Colonization Society (MSCS) in 1834. The MSCS desired to shift colonization in a more antislavery direction and did not believe it could accomplish this goal within the confines of the American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color (the American Colonization Society or ACS).

Free People of Color: Inside the African American Community

1994 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 165
Author(s):  
William D. Piersen ◽  
James Oliver Horton
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
African American Community ◽  
Free People Of Color ◽  
Free People

Atlantic Passages

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Murray
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
The United States ◽  
West African ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
The West ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Free People Of Color ◽  
American Colonization Society ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Free People

Established by the American Colonization Society in the early nineteenth century as a settlement for free people of color, the West African colony of Liberia is usually seen as an endpoint in the journeys of those who traveled there. In Atlantic Passages, Robert Murray reveals that many Liberian settlers did not remain in Africa but returned repeatedly to the United States, and he explores the ways this movement shaped the construction of race in the Atlantic world. Tracing the transatlantic crossings of Americo-Liberians between 1820 and 1857, in addition to delving into their experiences on both sides of the ocean, Murray discusses how the African neighbors and inhabitants of Liberia recognized significant cultural differences in the newly arrived African Americans and racially categorized them as “whites.” He examines the implications of being perceived as simultaneously white and black, arguing that these settlers acquired an exotic, foreign identity that escaped associations with primitivism and enabled them to claim previously inaccessible privileges and honors in America. Highlighting examples of the ways in which blackness and whiteness have always been contested ideas, as well as how understandings of race can be shaped by geography and cartography, Murray offers many insights into what it meant to be black and white in the space between Africa and America.

Free People of Color: Inside the African American Community

1994 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 430
Author(s):  
Roderick A. McDonald ◽  
James Oliver Horton
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
African American Community ◽  
Free People Of Color ◽  
Free People
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