History Commons^™

Weir Family Collection (Mss 651), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 651. Letters and papers of the Weir family of Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, and related members of the Rumsey and Miller families. Well-to-do merchants and farmers, the Weirs were leading supporters of the Union during the Civil War, providing advocacy, financial support, and military service. Includes full-text scans of a letter from the brother of steamboat pioneer James Rumsey defending his legacy as an innovator; James Weir's journal; James Weir's will; the annotated recollections of Edward Weir, Sr.; and two letters from former Weir slaves recolonized in Liberia (Click on "Additional files" below).

Warren, Kaye (Fa 1150), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1150. Student folk studies project titled “From Slavery to Freedom for the Negro Race in Logan County [Kentucky]” which includes survey sheets with a brief description of African American life in Logan County, Kentucky. Sheets may include interviews, written records, photographs, informant’s name, age, and address.

Takun J Fought The Gbagba, Zach E J Williams

Capstones

Liberia's most famous rapper has embarked on a quest to save democracy in Africa's oldest republic. This challenge faces Jonathan "Takun J" Koffa after a nine-year reign as the king of HiCo — a local form of Hip Hop music defined by the local patois. A local form of corruption called "Gbagba" makes for a formidable enemy, but Takun J has a plan to defeat it.

Link to capstone project: https://zachjournalism.com/2016/12/12/takun-j-fought-the-gbagba/

Defying Convention: Atypical Perspectives Of Slavery In Antebellum New Orleans, Amanda N. Carr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During the first half of the nineteenth century, slavery became a vital economic component upon which the success of the southern states in America rested. Cotton was king, and slavery was the peculiar institution that ensured its dominance in the domestic and international markets of America. Popular portrayals, however, often neglect the complicated dynamics of American slavery and instead depict the institution in simplistic terms. The traditional view has emphasized an image of white southerners as slaveholders and blacks as slaves. In New Orleans, the lives of three men—all of whom were tied to slavery in varying capacities—reveal a much …

Traitor Or Pioneer: John Brown Russwurm And The African Colonization Movement, Brian J. Barker

Graduate Masters Theses

The end of the Revolutionary War proved to be a significant moment in United States history. Not only did it signal the birth of a new nation, but it also affected the institution of slavery. Wartime rhetoric such as "All men are created equal," left the future of American slavery in doubt. Northern and mid-Atlantic states began to implement emancipation plans, and the question of what to do with free blacks became a pressing one. It soon became apparent that free blacks would not be given the same rights as white Americans, and the desire to have blacks removed from …

The Realities Of Foreign Humanitarianism And The U.S. Military: Nineteenth Century Roots, David Mock

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

For nearly two centuries, United States (U.S.) political policy and non-government organizations (NGOs) had delivered foreign humanitarian assistance (FHA) when and where needed. The logistical capability of the professional U.S. military has allowed it to become an enduring delivery method for FHA. Since the 2000s, Congress has actively shaped the Department of Defense’s (DoD) role in humanitarian operations through a wide variety of authorities contained in the Armed Services (Title 10 U.S. Code) and Foreign Relations and Intercourse (Title 22 U.S. Code) statutes, and through annual legislation. Each branch of the military has also developed more defined doctrines in response …

A Child Of The Atlantic: The Maine Years Of John Brown Russwurm, Carl Patrick Burrowes

Maine History

Celebrated in life as co-founder of America’s first black newspaper, John Brown Russwurm was the embodiment of an Atlantic Creole. Born in Jamaica to a white American father and a black Jamaican mother, as a young man Russwurm moved to North America. Throughout his teens and twenties, his “home” was southern Maine, and he was given a good secondary education there. After finishing school, Russwurm taught in several black schools in Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston. It was in these cities that he came into contact with America’s free black leaders, some of whom supported the movement to colonize …

Whiteness In Africa: Americo-Liberians And The Transformative Geographies Of Race, Robert P. Murray

Theses and Dissertations--History

This dissertation examines the constructed racial identities of African American settlers in colonial Liberia as they traversed the Atlantic between the United States and West Africa during the first half of the nineteenth century. In one of the great testaments that race is a social construction, the West African neighbors and inhabitants of Liberia, who conceived of themselves as “black,” recognized the significant cultural differences between themselves and these newly-arrived Americans and racially categorized the newcomers as “white.” This project examines the ramifications for these African American settlers of becoming simultaneously white and black through their Atlantic mobility. This is …

The African-American Emigration Movement In Georgia During Reconstruction, Falechiondro Karcheik Sims-Alvarado

History Dissertations

This dissertation is a narrative history about nearly 800 newly freed black Georgians who sought freedom beyond the borders of the Unites States by emigrating to Liberia during the years of 1866 and 1868. This work fulfills three overarching goals. First, I demonstrate that during the wake of Reconstruction, newly freed persons’ interest in returning to Africa did not die with the Civil War. Second, I identify and analyze the motivations of blacks seeking autonomy in Africa. Third, I tell the stories and challenges of those black Georgians who chose emigration as the means to civil and political freedom in …

Underwood Collection (Mss 58), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and selected full-text scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Collection 58. Correspondence, diaries, papers, and genealogical materials of Joseph Rogers Underwood, U.S. Senator from Bowling Green, Kentucky, his wife Elizabeth Cox Underwood, his brother Warner Lewis Underwood, and his son, John Cox Underwood.

The Curse Of Diamonds, Holly Thomas

2010 Awards for Excellence in Student Research & Creative Activity - Documents

Sierra Leone and Liberia have exported rough diamonds since the discovery of diamonds in the Mano River basin in the 1930s.i It was not until the late 20th century when these minerals were nicknamed conflict diamonds, loot-able resources sold to fund rebel movements and terrorist organizations. Conflict diamonds have been linked to civil war, corruption, and human rights violations. Both countries suffered through bloody civil wars, slow development, and a low standard of living. Sierra Leone's civil war resulted in thousands of deaths and the displacement of one-third of the country. Liberia's civil war resulted in over 200,000 deaths and …

Christian Community And The Development Of An Americo-Liberian Identity, 1824-1878, Andrew N. Wegmann

LSU Master's Theses

By the mid-nineteenth century, two separate visions of civilization and Christianity existed in Liberia. On the one hand, the settlers – the emigrants sent from the United States to Liberia by the American Colonization Society starting in 1822 – worshiped the external appearance of a Christian mind and “civilized” western body. They revered those citizens who spoke the best American English, lived in the grandest wood-framed houses, and wore the best American clothes. They required total indoctrination of natives into the “religion of the tall hat and frock coat” to maintain a stable, “civilized” American society. On the other hand, …

Baird, Thomas Henry, 1933-2009 (Sc 1945), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1945. Letters written by Thomas Henry Baird to his wife, Nancy Disher Baird, Cherry Point, North Carolina, discussing his service as a physician on a navy vessel on a mission to several African nations.

Hobson Family Papers (Mss 121), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 121. Correspondence, legal papers, and news clippings about the Hobsons, a prominent family of Bowling Green, Kentucky. The correspondence and reminiscences of Civil War veteran William E. Hobson; a diary kept by Mary Elizabeth Van Meter during the evacuation of Bowling Green, 1861; and correspondence of George Anna (Hobson) Duncan, an award winning trapshooter, are of particular significance. Also includes genealogical information about the Hobson and related families.

A House With Two Rooms: Final Report Of The Truth And Reconciliation Commission Of Liberia Diaspora Project, Dulce Foster, Dianne Heins, Mark Kalla, Michelle Garnett Mckenzie, James O'Neal, Rosalyn Park, Robin Phillips, Jennifer Prestholdt, Ahmed K. Sirleaf Ii, Laura A. Young

DRI Press

From 1979 to 2003, more than 1.5 million Liberians were forced from their homes to escape from the violence and destruction of a protracted civil conflict. Hundreds of thousands became refugees and many eventually made their way to countries of resettlement including the United States and the United Kingdom. Most of their stories have never been told. This report on the experience of the Liberian diaspora, entitled A House with Two Rooms, is the culmination of three years of work in the United States, the United Kingdom and Buduburam Refugee Settlement in Ghana. The report has been submitted to the …

Making History In The Bedroom: Americo-Liberians And Indigenous Liberians Sexual Unions, 1880s- C. 1950s, William E. Allen

Faculty Articles

The article discusses sexual unions between black American settlers and majority indigenes in Liberia. According to the author, these unions forged political alliances between indigenous Liberians and Americo-Liberians, furthered the so-called civilizing mission of the colony, and created space for social mobility. Details related to the different groups living in the region, including indigenous Africans, recaptives who had been taken off illegal slaving vessels and resettled in Liberia, and free and formerly enslaved blacks from the U.S., are presented. Other topics include Christianity, polygamy, and illegitimate children.

Africans, Cherokees, And The Abcfm Missionaries In The Nineteenth Century: An Unusual Story Of Redemption, Gnimbin Albert Ouattara

History Dissertations

My dissertation, “Africans, Cherokees, and the ABCFM Missionaries in the Nineteenth Century: An Unusual Story of Redemption,” assesses the experience of American missionaries in the Cherokee nation and in Western Africa during the nineteenth century. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), founded in 1810, was the first successful foreign missionary society in the U.S., and its campaign among the Cherokees served as springboard for its activities in “Western Africa”—Liberia, Ivory Coast, Gabon, and South Africa. Although the Cherokees and the West Africans were two different peoples, the ABCFM used the same method to Christianize them: the Lancasterian …

Seasons In Hell: Charles S. Johnson And The 1930 Liberian Labor Crisis, Phillip James Johnson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In 1930, African American sociologist Charles S. Johnson of Fisk University traveled to the Republic of Liberia as the American member of a League of Nations commission to investigate allegations of slavery and forced labor in that West African nation. In the previous five years, the face of Liberia had changed after the large-scale development of rubber plantations on land leased by the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, with headquarters in Akron, Ohio. Political turmoil greeted Johnson in Liberia, an underdeveloped nation teetering on the brink of economic collapse. This dissertation focuses on Johnson’s role as the key member of …

Henry Beard Delany And Emma Beard Delaney, Brien Laing

Books

Henry Beard Delany and Emma Beard Delaney were two African-Americans who rose from the obscurity of an enslaved family to achieve distinguished success in their individual lives. A period of time does not portray a history. To achieve that, one needs ideas, theories, and assumptions. There must be a concept with a structure systematically laid out, which reaches points of view leading to firm conclusions that allow the recording of this history of two dynamic African-Americans. This study is an examination of two remarkable lives. Theirs is a story of dignified control over their destinies, displaying only rare flinching from …

Letter From Francis Mairs Huntington-Wilson To Philander C. Knox, August 8, 1910, Francis Mairs Huntington-Wilson

Correspondence With Philander C. Knox

The document is a copy of a typed letter from Huntington Wilson to the Secretary of State concerning recent activity in the Department of State, including a vacancy on the International Court and negotiations in Liberia, Ecuador and Peru.

Letter From Charles F. Wilson To Francis Mairs Huntington-Wilson, July 12, 1910, Charles F. Wilson

Other Correspondence

The document is a typed letter from Charles F. Wilson to the Assistant Secretary of State replying to his letter of the previous day.

Letter From Francis Mairs Huntington-Wilson To Paul M. Warburg, January 15, 1910, Francis Mairs Huntington-Wilson

Other Correspondence

The document is a carbon copy of a typed letter from the Assistant Secretary of State to Paul M. Warburg concerning the possibility of American bankers providing a loan to the Republic of Liberia.

Letter From Francis Mairs Huntington-Wilson To Philander C. Knox, January 4, 1910, Francis Mairs Huntington-Wilson

Correspondence With Philander C. Knox

The document is a typed letter from the Assistant Secretary of State to Philander C. Knox concerning the appointment of a new Secretary for the Legation in Liberia.

Letter From Francis Mairs Huntington-Wilson To James Houston Eccleston, December 14, 1909, Francis Mairs Huntington-Wilson

Other Correspondence

The document is a carbon copy of a typed letter from the Assistant Secretary of State to Reverend J. H. Eccleston concerning suggestions from the Commission on Liberia.

Letter From Francis Mairs Huntington-Wilson To James Houston Eccleston, May 11, 1909, Francis Mairs Huntington-Wilson

Other Correspondence

The document is a carbon copy of a typed letter from the Assistant Secretary of State to Reverend J. H. Eccleston concerning information about Liberia.

Letter From Francis Mairs Huntington-Wilson To Fred Carpenter, March 6, 1909, Francis Mairs Huntington-Wilson

Other Correspondence

In this copy of a typed letter from Francis Mairs Huntington-Wilson to Fred Carpenter, Wilson asks President Taft for the appointment of Robert Ogden, Jacob Hollander, and Booker Washington as commissioners to Liberia.

Liberian Literature, Lucian Minor

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

An Address Delivered To The Colonization Society Of Kentucky, Kentucky Library Research Collections

Research Collections

No abstract provided.

History Of The American Colony In Liberia, From December 1821 To 1823, J. Ashmun

Maine History Documents

From page one: A Memoir of the Exertions and Sufferings of the American Colonists, connected with the occupation of Cape Montserado: embracing the particular History of the Colony of Liberia from December 1821 to 1823.

Written by Jehudi Ashmun, one of the first two professors of the Bangor Theological Seminary in Bangor, Maine. He retained his professorship during the period of working in the new colony of Monrovia, Liberia.