Introduction

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).

Atlantic Passages

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.

The Optics of Liberian Emigration

This chapter explores the life and work of Augustus Washington, the free African American photographer, who envisioned more rights and freedoms than those available in the United States. Anticipating a future in the United States bound by racial restraints, he packed up his successful photography studio in Hartford, Connecticut, and emigrated to Monrovia, Liberia. Washington worked closely with the American Colonization Society to convince black Americans to leave their homeland for Liberia and attempted to provoke viewers of his images to envision the potential of black rights in the United States that he enjoyed in Liberia. Washington’s images promulgating black Liberian political leadership and economic promise abroad offered a vision of freedom that belied a hierarchical, and often oppressive, Liberian society. In the wake of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, his images brought into focus the debates among African Americans about the uncertain, and perhaps imperiled, future of black people in the United States.

Slavery and the Troublesome Question

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.

I Have Been in the Legislature

In January 1846, Wesley Harlan, now nineteen, visits Monrovia, sixty miles northwest of his home. As he walks around the capital, he recalls his arrival in Liberia ten years earlier. Now he’s come to Monrovia to attend a church conference and to witness the legislature in action. Following his visit, Wesley writes to James Moore, a former neighbor in Kentucky. Wesley provides valuable information about the colony and an extensive overview of the major settlements. James Moore later forwards Wesley’s letters to the American Colonization Society, which publishes them in their periodical, The African Repository.

Afterword

The author’s concerted efforts to discover the fate of the surviving Majors and Harlans in Liberia are unsuccessful. However, the epilogue reveals what happened to Ben’s widow, Lucy, and the rest of his family after his death; summarizes the remaining years of George Harlan, who had freed Agnes Harlan and her family; examines the continued work of the American Colonization Society; and looks at the subsequent and rocky history of the Republic of Liberia. The afterword concludes by noting that the vine-and-fig-tree passage in Micah is preceded by this one: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” The author ends by expressing her hope that the people of Liberia will be able to build a stable nation where they can all live in peace under their own vines and fig trees.

Serious Doubts on the Slavery Question

After his return to Kentucky, Ben Major becomes deeply involved in the nascent Christian Church (Disciples of Christ); its founders, Alexander Campbell and Barton W. Stone, stridently oppose slavery. Ben had long harbored doubts about slavery. Now, driven by his new faith and memories of the brutal New Orleans slave markets, he decides to free his enslaved people. He becomes a life member of the American Colonization Society but learns that emancipation is not a simple process. Ben creates a multi-year plan that includes teaching his slaves to read and write. He also makes plans to move his own family from the slave state of Kentucky to the free state of Illinois and purchases land in Tazewell County, Illinois. When a colonization society agent, G. W. McElroy, travels through southwestern Kentucky, Ben’s slaves are turned over to him for transport to New York.

Liberty Brought Us Here

Liberty Brought Us Here: The True Story of American Slaves Who Migrated to Liberia is a narrative nonfiction book that tells the compelling story of four adults and twelve children from southwestern Kentucky who, after being freed from slavery, migrated to Liberia. It is also the tale of Ben Major, the white man who freed them. The Majors and their former neighbors, the Harlans, were sixteen of the 16,000 black people who left the United States under the auspices of the American Colonization Society. It was the largest out-migration in the country’s history. The emigrants were of African ancestry, but they were not Africans, and were unprepared for the deprivation, disease, and disasters that awaited them. Unlike many former slave owners, Ben stayed in touch with the people he had freed. He sent them much-needed items, such as seeds, tools, books, medicine, and other supplies to help them survive and flourish. In return, they sent coffee, peanuts, and other items to Ben. Liberty Brought Us Here explores this unusual relationship between former slaves and their former owner in the context of the debate over slavery, the controversial colonization movement, and the establishment of the Republic of Liberia.

I Am Nothing but a Plain Christian

Ben Major, an early member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), is deeply committed to his faith and is often referred to as “father” or “reverend.” In an 1846 letter to the American Colonization Society, Ben notes that his copies of the society’s publication are addressed to Rev. Ben Major. He asks them to drop the title in the future, saying that he is “nothing but a plain Christian,” a sentiment that ignores his significant contributions to the church. Chapter 19 details Ben’s involvement in the church, as well as that of his brothers and close friends.

We Stand in Great Need of Seed

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.