Bushrod Island is an island near

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 ...

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 ...

surrounded by the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

, 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 ...

, the

Mesurado River Mesurado River is a river of Liberia. It flows through the capital 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 ...

and Stockton Creek (a

tidal channel A tidal creek or tidal channel is a narrow inlet or estuary that is affected by the ebb and flow of ocean tides. Thus, it has variable salinity and electrical conductivity over the tidal cycle, and flushes salts from inland soils. Tidal cree ...

that connects the two rivers). It contains the

Freeport of Monrovia The Freeport of Monrovia is the main commercial port facility in the West African nation of Liberia. It was artificially created on Bushrod Island near Monrovia in 1948. The facility contains four piers and one main wharf with four berths. The po ...

, the major national port of Liberia and a variety of businesses. It also contains numerous residential areas and government buildings. There are four towns on the island, Vai Town,

New Kru Town New Kru Town is a northwestern coastal suburb of Monrovia, Liberia. Overview New Kru Town is a northwestern coastal suburb of Monrovia, located on the north end of Bushrod Island. It is the only borough in Liberia. The town grew as a planned ...

, Logan Town and

Clara Town Clara Town is a slum located on Bushrod Island in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. It is built upon a swamp. Clara Town was one of several ethnic communes that was squatted in the outskirts of Monrovia. Clara Town had around 4,500 inhabitants ...

. Its proximity to the capital and industrial base make it an important commercial area for the country. End Point is a geographical feature on north end of Bushrod Island.

History

Mostly a low-lying

mangrove swamp Mangrove forests, also called mangrove swamps, mangrove thickets or mangals, are productive wetlands that occur in coastal intertidal zones. Mangrove forests grow mainly at tropical and subtropical latitudes because mangroves cannot withstand fre ...

, Bushrod Island was occupied by the Dei people from the 16th century until the early 19th century. Gawulun was the chief town of the Dei on the island, and served as the capital of the Dei when " King Peter" was selected as the chief spokesman for his fellow Dei chiefs in 1819. In the late 1820s the community of New Georgia was established on Bushrod Island by people who had been freed from a slave ship in 1820, and kept in

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 ...

in the United States until 1827.

New Georgia New Georgia, with an area of , is the largest of the islands in Western Province, Solomon Islands, and the 200th-largest island in the world. Geography New Georgia island is located in the New Georgia Group, an archipelago including most of ...

is now located on the mainland directly to the east of Bushrod Island. The island is named after

Bushrod Washington Bushrod Washington (June 5, 1762 – November 26, 1829) was an American attorney and politician who served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1798 to 1829. On the Supreme Court, he was a staunch ally of C ...

, a nephew of

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

and first president 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 ...

(ACS). The ACS, which was active during the first part of the 19th century, advocated the emigration to Africa of free and enslaved

African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

. In 1878 a community of

Vai people The Vai are a Mande-speaking ethnic group that live mostly in Liberia, with a small minority living in south-eastern Sierra Leone. The Vai are known for their indigenous Syllabary, syllabic writing system known as Vai syllabary, developed in t ...

(called "Vai Town" by Williams) was located on Bushrod Island across the Mesurado River from Monrovia, while a few miles up the river on the island the community of New Georgia had about 500 residents.Williams:38-40

Notes

References

*Clegg, Claude Andrew. (2004) ''The price of liberty: African Americans and the making of Liberia.'' The University of North Carolina Press. Found a
Internet Archive
*Swanson, Gail. (2005) ''Slave Ship Guerrero.'' West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania: Infinity Publishing. *Williams, Alfred Brockenbrough. (1878) ''The Liberian Exodus. An Account of Voyage of the First Emigrants in the Bark "Azor," and Their Reception at Monrovia, with a Description of Liberia--Its Customs and Civilization, Romances and Prospects.'' Charleston, South Carolina: The News and Courier Book Presses. Found a

{{Commons category

External links

Encyclopædia Britannica
Islands of Liberia Saint Paul River Islands of the South Atlantic Ocean