|
Category:
History
Type: Non-Fiction
A chronicle of the lives of Free Blacks, as written by Author Anita Wills. Meet the family whose lines touch every aspect of Colonial American History.
Press Release – Feb 01, 2009 – Author Anita Wills, has been researching and documenting her family history since 1978. "I had little information to go on and no idea what was out there the project started", the Author states.
Author Anita Wills, research has connected her African American family to Liberia. In her first book, Notes And Documents of Free Persons of Color:Four Hundred Years of An African American Family's History, she wrote about the Free Persons of Color, in her family, who resided in Colonial Virginia. Now there is a second book, which will chronicle lines of other ancestors throughout Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland, and further. One ancestor, Elijah Johnson, was a Free Black who is credited with building Monrovia Liberia. He is a historical figure, but not familiar to most Americans.
Elijah Johnson (born about 1785-died 1856), was born in Virginia, and moved to New Jersey with his family, as a child. He may be a descendant of Antonio Johnson, the first black to land in Jamestown Virginia in 1619. He was a soldier in the New York Militia during the War of 1812, and fought against the British. Ms. Wills is related to Ms. Wills, through Sarah Johnson-Martin, a direct ancestor, five times removed. Sarah (born about 1808), also had a brother named Elijah Johnson, who was born about 1809. Both were left in Chester County Pennsylvania, in 1816. They were identified (on records), as the negro children of Elijah Johnson. Sarah and her brother were eventually indentured out, and remained in Pennsylvania. Their mother is not identified on the records, and may have been deceased.
SouthEastern Pennsylvania (including Philadelphia, Chester, and Lancaster County), was the Headquarters of the American Colonization Society. The ACS was an organization set up for the purpose of sending free blacks to Africa, or another colony set up for them. Lincoln University, an African American College in Chester County Pennsylvania, was first named Ashmum University. The college was named in honor of Ashmum Jehudi a white Methodist Minister who supported resettling Free Blacks in Liberia.
Elijah Johnson was also a Methodist Minister, and a friend of Ashmum Jehudi. There was not a lot of support for the, "Back to Africa", movement among black leaders of that era. The ship Susan, sailed out of New York to Liberia in 1820 with eighty -six passengers. After landing, most of the passengers, including Jehudi's wife died from Malaria, and other illnesses. Elijah Johnson's wife suffered a similar fate, and he was left with there children. They joined with other free blacks, in Sierra Leone, and again set out for Liberia. Jehudi kept a journal of the events, and noted that Elijah Johnsons' skills as a Military man saved many lives. Elijah was acting President of the fledgling Liberia, and his son, Richard E.W. Johnson was the first native born President in Liberia.
Ms. Wills has been in contact with Elijah Johnson's, Liberian descendants, and they are planning to meet later this year. They have found common names in the family lines that connect each to Elijah Johnson. She has dedicated a chapter of her second book, Pieces of the Quilt: The Mosaic of An African American Family, to Elijah Johnson and his exploits prior to, and during settling Liberia. Many of Elijah's Liberian descendants now live in the United States and continue to keep his legacy alive. The two families, American and Liberian, will be meeting in July of 2009, at the Johnson Family reunion in Huston Texas.
# # #
Excerpt
The organization owed its existence to the coinciding of several unusual historical circumstances. Slavery had died out in the Northern part of the Union, where it had never prospered. The cotton boom in the Deep South, which would later revive the institution, had yet to gain momentum. European and British public opinion was also turning against slavery, and closer to American shores, Haitian slaves had established a “Negro republic” in 1804 after throwing out their French masters, a very worrisome precedent as American plantation owners saw it. Meanwhile, a second Great Awakening was beginning to sweep through the United States. Its calls for the swift conversion of the world to Christianity in anticipation of Christ’s imminent second coming gave birth to the foreign missionary movement...,
Starting the project required some free blacks to agree in effect to deport themselves. Most black churches and associations made their lack of enthusiasm clear. They pointed out that they were generations removed from their African roots; had as good a claim as any other Americans to citizenship; and would do perfectly well for themselves if given the schooling and job opportunities that whites routinely enjoyed. Nevertheless, some pious blacks had caught the missionary fever, and others hardheadedly decided that emigration offered chances for real independence that simply were not going to become available in America. They signed on, in the hope of turning a part of Africa into a little replica of Massachusetts or Maryland in order to prove what they could do.
A third ship, the Strong, arrived in 1822. Its passengers included three men who would play a large part in Liberia’s immediate future. They were Jehudi Ashmun, Elijah Johnson, and Lott Carey. Ashmun, who brought his wife, was a twenty-eight-year-old white graduate of Middlebury College, a former minister and journalist. Carey was likewise a preacher, and Johnson had served as an artilleryman in the 1812-15 war.
Johnson’s experience proved useful, as new ships arrived, settlers came under harassing raids from suspicious local Africans. In November of 1822, Johnson’s thirty-six-man militia repulsed an attack with heavy casualties to the assailants, guaranteeing the colony’s survival. Ashmun relentlessly promoted the welfare and reputation of his “living miracle of Africa” until the fevers killed him and his wife. Carey succeeded Johnson as temporary head of the colony but was killed the following year—1829—in an accident. Leadership then fell to two American mulattoes, Joseph Roberts and Anthony Williams.
Elijah Johnson could not have foreseen the fate waiting in Liberia, nor that they would become historical figures. When they arrived in Liberia many of those on the ship, died of disease and starvation. A failed mission would have cost embarrassment for the American Colonization Society so returning was not an option. Elijah and a small group survived in the bush, and eventually built Monrovia. It is not clear whether Elijah ever contacted his children, my Great-Great Grandmother, Sarah Johnson, or his son, and namesake, Elijah Johnson.
|
