Mississippi-in-Africa was a colony on the

Pepper Coast The Pepper Coast or Grain Coast was a coastal area of western Africa, between Cape Mesurado and Cape Palmas. It encloses the present republic of Liberia. The name was given by European traders. Origin of the name The Pepper Coast got its name f ...

(West Africa) founded in the 1830s by the Mississippi Colonization Society of the United States and settled by American

free people of color In the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, free people of color (French: ''gens de couleur libres''; Spanish: ''gente de color libre'') were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Native American descent who were not ...

, many of them former slaves. In the late 1840s, some 300 former slaves from Prospect Hill Plantation and other

Isaac Ross Isaac Beattie Ross (born 27 October 1984) is a New Zealand rugby union player. He plays in the lock position for the Austin Gilgronis of Major League Rugby (MLR) competition. Professional career Ross is of Māori descent, and played for New ...

properties in Jefferson County, Mississippi, were the largest single group of emigrants to the new colony. Ross had freed the slaves in his will and provided for his plantation to be sold to pay for their transportation and initial costs. These freedmen and other American immigrants to the colony and its neighbors,

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 ...

(which annexed Mississippi-in-Africa in 1842) and Republic of Maryland (which merged with Liberia in 1857) developed as the Americo-Liberians, an ethnic group who formed a political and economic elite. They dominated what became the independent country of Liberia into the late 20th century, having taken power over the indigenous natives. The Mississippi colony was located in what is present-day Sinoe County, Liberia.

History

The American Colonization Society was founded in the United States in 1816 as a joint project by proslavery and antislavery advocates to establish a colony for free American blacks in West Africa. Slaveholders wanted to relocate free people of color out of the South, as they believed that free blacks threatened the stability of their slave societies. Some who supported eventual abolition of slavery believed that transporting freed slaves to Africa would give them a better opportunity to make their own communities. Disheartened by the discrimination faced by free blacks in the North, some abolitionists also supported the ACS, because they thought free blacks might be able to create a better society for themselves in Africa. Most free blacks did not want to emigrate; they considered the colonization plan to be a means to export them. They believed they had a native-born claim to the United States, were part of the society, and wanted to gain equal rights in their native land. Samuel Cornish and

John Brown Russwurm John Brown Russwurm (October 1, 1799 – June 9, 1851) was an abolitionist, newspaper publisher, and colonizer of Liberia, where he moved from the United States. He was born in Jamaica to an English father and enslaved mother. As a child he t ...

published ''Freedom's Journal'' in New York City, writing articles that opposed the colonization movement. In June 1831, major planters and slaveholders Stephen Duncan,

(1760–1838),

Edward McGehee Edward McGehee (November 8, 1786 – October 1, 1880) was an American judge and major planter in Wilkinson County, Mississippi. He owned nearly 1,000 slaves to work his thousands of acres of cotton land at his Bowling Green Plantation. In the 183 ...

(1786–1880),

John Ker John Ker (8 August 1673 – 8 July 1726), born John Crawford in Crawfurdland, Ayrshire, was a Scots Presbyterian linked with Cameronian radicals who between 1705 and 1709 acted as a government informer against the Jacobites. Dogged by financi ...

(1789–1850), and educator Jemeriah Chamberlain (1794–1851), president of Oakland College, co-founded the Mississippi Colonization Society. Their goal was to remove free people of color and freed slaves from their state to the developing colony of Liberia on the African continent.Mary Carol Miller
''Lost Mansions of Mississippi''
Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2010, Volume II, pp. 53–54. This Society bought a portion of land for the colony, which was known as Mississippi-in-Africa. They believed that free blacks threatened the stability of slave societies, and Mississippi's population had a majority of slaves, outnumbering whites by a three-to-one ratio. The first settlers arrived in 1837. The town of Greenville was built in about 1838 by the colonists. Greenville was named after Judge James Green, one of the first

Mississippi Delta The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi (and portions of Arkansas and Louisiana) that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo ...

planters to send a group of former slaves to Liberia. Mississippi In Africa"> Mississippi In Africa
/ref> Josiah Finley, the brother of ACS founder Robert Finley, was governor of Mississippi-in-Africa from June 1837 to September 10, 1838, when he was murdered by local fishermen.Sullivan, Jo. M. "Mississippi in Africa: Settlers Among the Kru," ''Liberian Studies Journal'' Vol. VIII, No. 2 (1978–1979). Isaac Ross provided for manumission of his slaves in his will, if they agreed to relocation to West Africa. His plantation was to be sold to provide funds for transportation and for supplies for the pioneer settlers. A grandson contested the will, but it was upheld by Mississippi's High Court of Errors and Appeals (since renamed the Supreme Court of Mississippi). In the late 1840s, approximately 300 African-American freedmen from Ross's Prospect Hill Plantation emigrated to Mississippi-in-Africa. They were the largest single group of American colonists to migrate to Liberia. Ross's grandson and heir Isaac Ross Wade contested the will through years of litigation, during which time he occupied the plantation. Wade was supposed to pay the freedmen for their labor.Dale Edwyna Smith, ''The Slaves of Liberty: Freedom in Amite County, Mississippi, 1820–1868'', Routledge, 2013, pp. 15–2

/ref> In 1847 the court ruled that the slaves, then technically free, could leave the United States. In 1848 the last group of Ross's freed slaves emigrated to the colony in West Africa. The passage to Africa was arranged by the Mississippi Colonization Society. It had purchased land on the Pepper Coast for a colony for freedmen from Mississippi. The late Ross was the first among its founders to have arranged for manumission of his slaves. The freedmen developed a society in West Africa much like the one they had left but taking the dominant position in relation to indigenous natives. They built houses in the style of Southern mansions and established a hierarchical society with strong continuities to what they had known in the United States. They established plantations and battled local tribes for control of the territory, believing their American culture and Christianity made them superior.Alan Huffman
"Mississippi In Africa: The Saga of the Slaves of Prospect Hill Plantation and Their Legacy in Liberia Today"
''African Diaspora Archeology Newsletter'', Volume 13, Issue 4, December 2010 This settlement existed independently from 1835 until 1842, when it was incorporated into the

Commonwealth of Liberia The Colony of Liberia, later the Commonwealth of Liberia, was a private colony of the American Colonization Society (ACS) beginning in 1822. It became an independent nation—the Republic of Liberia—after declaring independence in 1847. Early ...

. In 1847 Liberia became independent of the American Colonization Society. Journalist Alan Huffman's history of the settlement explores its influence in contributing to more than a century of resentment between the majority of tribal peoples and the Americo-Liberians, descendants of the colonists who dominated the politics and economy of Liberia well into the 20th century. These groups have been on opposite sides of the civil war in Liberia since the 1980s.

Timeline

* June 1831 — Mississippi Colonization Society founded * 1835 — Mississippi and Louisiana State Colonization societies found Mississippi-in-Africa colony * June 1837 — Josiah Finley named governor * September 10, 1838 — Finley murdered * 1841 — Thomas Buchanan named Acting Agent (but not in residence) * 1842 — Incorporation into the Commonwealth of Liberia * 1844 — Richard E. Murray named governor

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mississippi-In-Africa 1842 in Liberia History of Liberia Former countries in Africa Repatriated Africans Repatriated slaves People of Liberated African descent African diaspora history Pre-emancipation African-American history African-American repatriation organizations Populated places established by Americo-Liberians American colonization movement Former polities incorporated into Liberia African-American history of Mississippi Americo-Liberian people

History

Timeline

See also

References