The McGill family of

Monrovia, Liberia 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 th ...

, was a free

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 ...

family from

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, who emigrated to

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 the 19th century. Among the early American settlers in Liberia, the McGills became established as one of the most prominent early

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 ...

families. Daguerreotypes of the McGill family can be found in the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

. Members occupied colonial offices, and they are mentioned in the ''African Repository'' magazine published by 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 ...

Immigration to Liberia

George R. and Angelina McGill emigrated to Liberia aboard the ''Reaper'' with several members of their family and arrived in Monrovia in February 1831. Shortly after, Angelina died. Some of the McGill family settled at

Cape Palmas Cape Palmas is a headland on the extreme southeast end of the coast of Liberia, Africa, at the extreme southwest corner of the northern half of the continent. The Cape itself consists of a small, rocky peninsula connected to the mainland by a s ...

, south of Monrovia. George McGill, however, remained in Monrovia, where he became a wealthy merchant and Methodist preacher; two of his four sons followed suit. George McGill also served as the acting colonial agent of the American Colonization Society from September 24, 1833, to January 1, 1834. Brothers Urias and James McGill partnered in 1854 to establish the Urias A. McGill & Brother trading company. Later on the name was changed to McGill Brothers when their two other brothers, Samuel and R. S. McGill, joined them in the trading business. The McGill Brothers company established many warehouses and numerous stores. They were among the first successful Americo-Liberian trading families.

Members of the family

* Urias McGill (merchant) * Sarah McGill Russwurm, wife of

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 ...

* James McGill (American Colonist) *

Samuel Ford McGill Samuel Ford McGill (January 1815June 26, 1871) was a Liberian physician and politician who served as governor of Maryland in Liberia from 1851 to 1854. Born free in Baltimore, Maryland, he emigrated to Liberia in 1826. Early life and education ...

(doctor, merchant, graduate of Dartmouth College) * R. S. McGill * Edwin Urias McGill. Son Urias McGill *

Rick Betton-Desheild Rick may refer to: People *Rick (given name), a list of people with the given name *Alan Rick (born 1976), Brazilian politician, journalist, pastor and television personality *Johannes Rick (1869–1946), Austrian-born Brazilian priest and mycol ...

. Great-grandson of Edwin Urias McGill * Corinna McGill. Daughter of Urias McGill * Edrinna McGill Moosman. Grand-daughter of Urias McGill (An American Model-Actress & Entrepreneur) * Lance Bell. Great-Grand son of Urias McGill * Corinna Moosman. Great-granddaughter of Urias McGill * Devin McGill. Great-Grand son of Urias McGill They were members of the largely

mixed-race Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-ethn ...

Americo-Liberian community, as they had visibly light skin and European ancestry. Two portraits of members of the McGill family were shown on a segment of ''

African American Lives ''African American Lives'' is a PBS television miniseries hosted by historian Henry Louis Gates Jr., focusing on African American genealogical research. The family histories of prominent people of African American descent are explored using tradit ...

'' presented by

Henry Louis Gates Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker, who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African Am ...

; one of the members of the family shown was Urias McGill, known as the "Merchant of Monrovia" Daguerreotypes of the McGill family are held in the Library of Congress as they were among the early 19th-century colonizers of Liberia.

References

Citations

Sources

* *http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/awash/mcgill.htm *http://negroartist.com/dags%20library%20of%20congress/index.htm *https://web.archive.org/web/20080211234250/http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/Arrivals/liberia.htm *https://web.archive.org/web/20080306041452/http://www.educationalsynthesis.org/famamer/NinthPresident.html *http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam003.html *http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/daghtml/dagamco.html
Liberia Past and Present
J. J. Roberts {{DEFAULTSORT:Macgill family Americo-Liberian people People of Americo-Liberian descent Americo-Liberian families McGill family of Monrovia African-American families African-American history in Baltimore Agents and Governors of Liberia

Immigration to Liberia

Members of the family

See also

References

Citations

Sources