Anthony William Gardiner (January 24, 1820 – 1885) served as the ninth

president of Liberia The president of the Republic of Liberia is the head of state and government of Liberia. The president serves as the leader of the executive branch and as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Liberia. Prior to the independence of Liberia ...

from 1878 until 1883. He was the first of a series of True Whig presidents who held power uninterruptedly until 1980.

Early years

Gardiner was born in

Southampton County, Virginia Southampton County is a county located on the southern border of the Commonwealth of Virginia. North Carolina is to the south. As of the 2020 census, the population was 17,996. Its county seat is Courtland. History In the early 17th century ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. In 1831, in the wake of Nat Turner's Slave Rebellion in Southampton, when Gardiner was still a child, his was one of the families who relocated to Liberia under the sponsorship of the

American Colonization Society The American Colonization Society (ACS), initially the Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America until 1837, was an American organization founded in 1816 by Robert Finley to encourage and support the migration of freebor ...

. Gardiner received his law degree in Liberia and, in 1847, he served as a delegate to the National Convention, which drafted Liberia's declaration of independence and constitution. He became Liberia's first

attorney general In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

and later served in the

House of Representatives of Liberia The House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the bicameral legislative branch of Liberia, and together with the Senate comprises the Legislature of Liberia. The number of seats is fixed by law at 73, with each county being apportioned a ...

from 1855 to 1871. He served as Speaker of the House of Representatives 1860–1861. In May 1871, he was elected vice-president and was elected once again, serving until 1876. During the incapacitation of President

Joseph Jenkins Roberts Joseph Jenkins Roberts (March 15, 1809 – February 24, 1876) was an African-American merchant who emigrated to Liberia in 1829, where he became a politician. Elected as the first (1848–1856) and seventh (1872–1876) president of Lib ...

from 1875 until early 1876, Gardiner was also acting president. Less than two years after leaving office as acting president, Gardiner won election to the presidency, taking office in 1878. In the same election, the True Whig Party won a massive victory and proceeded to dominate Liberian politics until a

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

in 1980 ended almost a century and a half of minority rule by the

Americo-Liberians Americo-Liberian people or Congo people or Congau people in Liberian English,Cooper, Helene, ''The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood'' (United States: Simon and Schuster, 2008), p. 6 are a Liberian ethnic group of Afr ...

Presidency (1878–1883)

The decades after 1868, escalating economic difficulties weakened the state's dominance over the coastal indigenous population. Conditions worsened, the cost of imports was far greater than the income generated by exports of coffee, rice, palm oil, sugarcane, and timber. Liberia tried desperately to modernize its largely agricultural economy. As president, Gardiner called for increased trade with and investment from outside countries, improved

public education State schools (in England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand) or public schools (Scottish English and North American English) are generally primary or secondary schools that educate all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in pa ...

, and closer relations with Liberia's native peoples. However, his policies were overshadowed by the ramifications of the

European powers A great power is a sovereign state that is recognized as having the ability and expertise to exert its influence on a global scale. Great powers characteristically possess military and economic strength, as well as diplomatic and soft power inf ...

scramble for Africa The Scramble for Africa, also called the Partition of Africa, or Conquest of Africa, was the invasion, annexation, division, and colonisation of Africa, colonization of most of Africa by seven Western Europe, Western European powers during a ...

Territorial conflicts with European powers

Rivalries between the Europeans colonizing West Africa and the interest of the United States helped preserve Liberian independence during this period, and until 1919, in spite of Liberia's ongoing disputes with England and France. During Gardiner's administration difficulties with the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

and

Imperial Germany The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

reached a crisis. Liberia was drawn into a border conflict with the British Empire over the Gallinas territory, lying between the

Sewa River Sewa River is a river in Sierra Leone. Its furthest sources are the Bagbe River and Bafi River, which originates in the mountainous areas of the northeastern part of the country, near the border with Guinea. From the confluence of Bagbe and Bafi in ...

and the

Mano River The Mano River is a river in West Africa. It originates in the Guinea Highlands in Liberia and forms part of the Liberia-Sierra Leone Liberia–Sierra Leone border, border. The districts through which the river flows include the Parrot's Beak ...

—territory which now forms the extreme eastern part of

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

. The British made a formal show of force at

Monrovia Monrovia () is the capital city of the West African country of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic coast and as of the 2008 census had 1,010,970 residents, home to 29% of Liberia’s total population. As the ...

in a mission led by Sir

Arthur Havelock Sir Arthur Elibank Havelock, (7 May 1844 – 25 June 1908) was a career British colonial governor, serving as Governor of Sierra Leone from 1880, of KwaZulu-Natal Province, Natal, of Madras, of Ceylon from 1890 to 1895, and of Tasmania from ...

; meanwhile, the looting of a German vessel along the

Kru KRU was a Malaysian pop boy band formed in 1992. The group comprises three brothers, namely Datuk Norman Abdul Halim, Datuk Yusry Abdul Halim and Edry Abdul Halim'. Apart from revolutionising the Malaysian music scene with their blend of pop ...

Coast and personal indignities inflicted by the natives upon the shipwrecked Germans, led to the bombardment of Nana Kru by the German

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the slo ...

and the presentation at Monrovia of a claim for damages, payment of which was forced by the threat of the bombardment of the capital.

Resignation

President Gardiner resigned on January 20, 1883, due to a serious illness. He was succeeded by the vice-president, Alfred F. Russell. Two months later, in March 1883, the British Government would annex the Gallinas territory west of the

and formally incorporate it into Sierra Leone.

References

* ''This article incorporates

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

text from Brawley, ''A Social History of The American Negro'', retrieved from Project Gutenberg

'

External links

Liberia Past and Present
Anthony W. Gardiner

*see also History of Liberia, external links {{DEFAULTSORT:Gardiner, Anthony William 1820 births 1885 deaths American emigrants to Liberia Attorneys general of Liberia Liberian lawyers People from Grand Bassa County People from Southampton County, Virginia Presidents of Liberia Signatories of the Liberian Declaration of Independence Speakers of the House of Representatives of Liberia True Whig Party politicians Vice presidents of Liberia 19th-century Liberian lawyers 19th-century Liberian politicians 20th-century Liberian lawyers Date of death missing 19th-century African-American people