Joseph Robert Love, known as Dr. Robert Love (2 October 1839 – 21 November 1914), was a 19th-century Bahamian-born medical doctor, clergyman, teacher, journalist, politician and

pan-Africanist Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all Indigenous and diaspora peoples of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement exte ...

. He lived, studied, and worked successively in the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the a ...

, the

United States of America 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 territo ...

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and s ...

, and

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispa ...

. Love spent the last decades of his life in Jamaica, where he held political office, published a newspaper, and advocated for the island's black majority.

Early life

Love was born in the Bahamas on 2 October 1839. He got primary education and was influence by the Anglican Church during this period. Later he became a teacher in Bahamas. In the late 1860s, He went to

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 Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. In June 1871, he became clergy in Trinity Church, New York and transferred to the Church of St. Stephen, Savannah in December. In 1872, claiming about the discrimination to people of darker color there, he left Church of St. Stephen, Savannah and established St. Augustine's mission that mainly consist of black people; during this period he also managed schools for black children. In 1876 he left the mission and left for Buffalo. In Buffalo, he was Rector of St. Philip's until 1878. From 1877 he started to study at the

University of Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 18 ...

and in 1880 he obtained a medical degree.

Haiti

In 1881, Love moved to

, where he served as the rector of an

Anglican church Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...

Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince ( , ; ht, Pòtoprens ) is the capital and most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 987,311 in 2015 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The metropolitan area is define ...

. He was forced to end his career in church due to a quarrel, and he became a doctor in the Haitian army that engaged with the revolt in Haiti. During his time in Haiti he experienced grave difficulty in politics. In 1889, he was eventually expelled. He went to Kingston,

and failed in his attempts to return to Haiti.

Jamaica

In Jamaica, he started the ''Jamaica Advocate'' newspaper in December 1894, which became an influential newspaper on the island. Love used the paper as a forum to express his concern for the living conditions of Jamaica's black population. He was a staunch advocate of access to education for the majority of the population. He believed that girls, like boys, should receive secondary school education.Kathleen E. A. Monteith and Glen Richards (eds), ''Jamaica in Slavery and Freedom: History, Heritage and Culture'', Kingston, Jamaica: The University of the West Indies, 2002, p. 379. Love piloted a voter registration drive, as a means of empowering the black majority, and challenging white minority rule. The white elite in the

Colony of Jamaica The Crown Colony of Jamaica and Dependencies was a British colony from 1655, when it was captured by the English Protectorate from the Spanish Empire. Jamaica became a British colony from 1707 and a Crown colony in 1866. The Colony was prima ...

worried that Love was filling the heads of black people with dangerous ideas of racial equality. John Vassall Calder claimed that black people lacked the mental capacities to thrive, and stated: “Dr. Love must remember that his ancestors were my ancestors’ slaves....He could never be my equal. He is aggrieved because my forefathers rescued him from the bonds of thraldom and deprived him the privilege of being King of the Congo, enjoying the epicurean and conjugal orgies and the sacrificial pleasures of his ancestral home in Africa.”Edward White, (5 October 2016)
"Rise Up"
''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Phi ...

''. Retrieved 30 July 2020. The white establishment viewed Love with as much suspicion as they did the pan-African Native Baptist preacher,

Alexander Bedward Alexander Bedward (born 1848 in Saint Andrew Parish, Jamaica, Saint Andrew Parish, north of Kingston, Jamaica - died 8 November 1930) was the founder of Bedwardism. He was one of the most successful preachers of Jamaican Christian revival, Reviv ...

. However, Love always thought Bedward to be nothing more than a skilled showman whom a hysterical establishment had managed to turn into a martyr. Love helped black candidates to get elected to the Council, which advised the government. In 1906, Love himself won the Saint Andrew Parish seat of the Legislative Council in general elections. He also served as chairman of the Saint Andrew Parochial Board, as well as a

justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or '' puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the s ...

in Kingston, the Kingston General Commissions and as a trustee of

Wolmer's schools Wolmer's Schools in Kingston, Jamaica, consist of Wolmer's Pre-School, Wolmer's Preparatory School and two high schools: Wolmer's Trust High School For Girls and Wolmer's Trust High School for Boys. While acknowledged as separate institutions, ea ...

. Love published two works, ''Romanism is Not Christianity'' (1892), and ''St. Peter's True Position in the Church, Clearly Traced in the Bible'' (1897).C.V. Black, ''A History of Jamaica'' (London: Collins, 1975), p. 227.

Death and legacy

Love's health began to deteriorate, and by 1910 he had been forced to end his political career. He died on 21 November 1914, and was buried in the parish church yard at

Half Way Tree Half Way Tree is a neighbourhood in the city of Kingston, Jamaica. It is the parish capital of St. Andrew. Half Way Tree is served by the Kingston 10 post office. In recent years, as a result of crime and violence in Downtown Kingston and Cr ...

, near the city of Kingston. Love's activism in favour of Jamaica's economically depressed black majority influenced later Jamaican and Caribbean activists, including

Marcus Garvey Marcus Mosiah Garvey Sr. (17 August 188710 June 1940) was a Jamaican political activist, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator. He was the founder and first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African ...

References

External links

"Love, Robert"
Biographies of Jamaican Personalities. National Library of Jamaica. {{DEFAULTSORT:Love, Joseph Robert 1839 births 1914 deaths Members of the House of Representatives of Jamaica Bahamian emigrants to Jamaica Bahamian pan-Africanists African and Black nationalists African diaspora literature University at Buffalo alumni Bahamian journalists Bahamian politicians Bahamian expatriates in the United States Bahamian emigrants to Haiti American physicians 19th-century Jamaican physicians Jamaican justices of the peace