Arthington is a small town in

Montserrado County Montserrado County is a county in the northwestern portion of the West African nation of Liberia containing its national capital, Monrovia. One of 15 counties that comprise the first-level of administrative division in the nation, it has 17 sub p ...

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

, located along the

Saint Paul River The Saint Paul River is a river of western Africa. Its headwaters are in southeastern Guinea. Its upper portion in Guinea is known as the Diani River or Niandi River, and forms part of the boundary between Guinea and Liberia. It is known local ...

northeast of the capital city of

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 ...

. It is mainly known as the hometown of former President Charles Taylor, the country's 22nd president.

History

The town is named after Robert Arthington, an attorney and philanthropist from

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

who contributed money for former slaves from the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

to emigrate to Liberia and to increase access to Liberia's interior. Arthington was settled in 1869 by 79

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

immigrants from

Windsor, North Carolina Windsor is a town in Bertie County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 3,630 at the 2010 census, up from 2,283 in 2000. It is the county seat of Bertie County, which is also the homeland of the Southern Band Tuscarora Tribe that rem ...

.Burrowes, Carl Patrick
''Power And Press Freedom In Liberia, 1830-1970''
/ref> In 1870, John Roulhac and his party arrived. In 1871, parties led by Jefferson Bracewell and

Elias Hill Elias Hill (c. 1819 - March 28, 1872) was a Baptist minister and leader of a York County, South Carolina congregation that emigrated to Arthington, Liberia. In May 1871, during the Reconstruction era, he was among the victims in a series of atta ...

arrived, and in 1872 another group led by Aaron Miller came. These and other immigrants from the U.S. states of North Carolina,

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

also provided what later came to be known as the

Americo-Liberian 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 Afric ...

population of the town. The town was once known for producing sugarcane, coffee, and ginger, and was the location of one of Liberia's most prosperous trading companies in the late 19th century. The town's architecture, patterned after plantation homes in the Carolinas, was featured in ''A Land and Life Remembered: Americo-Liberian Folk Architecture'' (UGA Press, 1988).

References

{{Reflist Populated places in Liberia Montserrado County Populated places established in 1869 1869 establishments in Liberia Populated places established by Americo-Liberians