Susan E. Lindsey
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780813179339
- eISBN:
- 9780813179353
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813179339.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
Agnes Harlan’s son Lewis is dying of malaria. Despite her fervent prayers and attentive care, she loses her oldest child. On average, 20 percent of every boatload of immigrants to Liberia dies of ...
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Agnes Harlan’s son Lewis is dying of malaria. Despite her fervent prayers and attentive care, she loses her oldest child. On average, 20 percent of every boatload of immigrants to Liberia dies of malaria in the first year. In Tolbert Major’s May 1839 letter to Ben, he includes a short note to another man, James Moore, in which he reveals that Agnes has lost two of her sons since arriving in Liberia. Tolbert asks Moore to contact George Harlan, Agnes’s former owner, to tell him the news. The chapter discusses risks to health in Liberia, similar health risks in America, the Liberian system known as “pawning,” and a recent war with some of the indigenous people.Less
Agnes Harlan’s son Lewis is dying of malaria. Despite her fervent prayers and attentive care, she loses her oldest child. On average, 20 percent of every boatload of immigrants to Liberia dies of malaria in the first year. In Tolbert Major’s May 1839 letter to Ben, he includes a short note to another man, James Moore, in which he reveals that Agnes has lost two of her sons since arriving in Liberia. Tolbert asks Moore to contact George Harlan, Agnes’s former owner, to tell him the news. The chapter discusses risks to health in Liberia, similar health risks in America, the Liberian system known as “pawning,” and a recent war with some of the indigenous people.
Susan E. Lindsey
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780813179339
- eISBN:
- 9780813179353
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813179339.003.0020
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
After a silence of nearly four years, Tolbert Major writes again to Ben Major in 1847. He asks Ben to send writing paper, its scarcity accounting, in part, for the long delay between letters. ...
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After a silence of nearly four years, Tolbert Major writes again to Ben Major in 1847. He asks Ben to send writing paper, its scarcity accounting, in part, for the long delay between letters. Tolbert’s letter is filled with family news. He writes, “I want to see you and your wife and children very bad,” and asks Ben to send a drawing of him and his wife, Lucy, “for my children to look at when I am dead.” The relationships between enslaved people, their owners, and the owners’ families were complex, and this chapter explores that complexity. The chapter also explores the value colonists placed on education and the experiences of widows in Liberia.Less
After a silence of nearly four years, Tolbert Major writes again to Ben Major in 1847. He asks Ben to send writing paper, its scarcity accounting, in part, for the long delay between letters. Tolbert’s letter is filled with family news. He writes, “I want to see you and your wife and children very bad,” and asks Ben to send a drawing of him and his wife, Lucy, “for my children to look at when I am dead.” The relationships between enslaved people, their owners, and the owners’ families were complex, and this chapter explores that complexity. The chapter also explores the value colonists placed on education and the experiences of widows in Liberia.
Susan E. Lindsey
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780813179339
- eISBN:
- 9780813179353
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813179339.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
Liberty Brought Us Here: The True Story of American Slaves Who Migrated to Liberia is a narrative nonfiction book that tells the compelling story of four adults and twelve children from southwestern ...
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Liberty Brought Us Here: The True Story of American Slaves Who Migrated to Liberia is a narrative nonfiction book that tells the compelling story of four adults and twelve children from southwestern Kentucky who, after being freed from slavery, migrated to Liberia. It is also the tale of Ben Major, the white man who freed them. The Majors and their former neighbors, the Harlans, were sixteen of the 16,000 black people who left the United States under the auspices of the American Colonization Society. It was the largest out-migration in the country’s history. The emigrants were of African ancestry, but they were not Africans, and were unprepared for the deprivation, disease, and disasters that awaited them. Unlike many former slave owners, Ben stayed in touch with the people he had freed. He sent them much-needed items, such as seeds, tools, books, medicine, and other supplies to help them survive and flourish. In return, they sent coffee, peanuts, and other items to Ben. Liberty Brought Us Here explores this unusual relationship between former slaves and their former owner in the context of the debate over slavery, the controversial colonization movement, and the establishment of the Republic of Liberia.Less
Liberty Brought Us Here: The True Story of American Slaves Who Migrated to Liberia is a narrative nonfiction book that tells the compelling story of four adults and twelve children from southwestern Kentucky who, after being freed from slavery, migrated to Liberia. It is also the tale of Ben Major, the white man who freed them. The Majors and their former neighbors, the Harlans, were sixteen of the 16,000 black people who left the United States under the auspices of the American Colonization Society. It was the largest out-migration in the country’s history. The emigrants were of African ancestry, but they were not Africans, and were unprepared for the deprivation, disease, and disasters that awaited them. Unlike many former slave owners, Ben stayed in touch with the people he had freed. He sent them much-needed items, such as seeds, tools, books, medicine, and other supplies to help them survive and flourish. In return, they sent coffee, peanuts, and other items to Ben. Liberty Brought Us Here explores this unusual relationship between former slaves and their former owner in the context of the debate over slavery, the controversial colonization movement, and the establishment of the Republic of Liberia.
Susan E. Lindsey
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780813179339
- eISBN:
- 9780813179353
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813179339.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
On Tolbert Major’s last day in America, he wakes at dawn in a room at the Staten Island Quarantine Grounds. He rouses his sons and then walks down to the pier to see the Luna, the vessel that will ...
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On Tolbert Major’s last day in America, he wakes at dawn in a room at the Staten Island Quarantine Grounds. He rouses his sons and then walks down to the pier to see the Luna, the vessel that will take him and his family to Liberia, Africa. Tolbert recalls the send-off ceremony held the previous day, July 4, 1836, when officials from the New York Colonization Society joined dozens of newly emancipated slaves and freeborn black people in singing hymns, praying, and listening to speeches. (The emigrants weren’t ill; the mayor had temporarily housed them at the quarantine grounds.) The next morning, Tolbert, his sons, his brother Austin, their former neighbor Agnes Harlan, and the other emigrants board the ship Luna and prepare to sail. The passengers endure seasickness and weeks of anticipation as they sail across the Atlantic. Every sunset leaves behind loved ones and everything that is familiar. Every sunrise tugs them toward a new life.Less
On Tolbert Major’s last day in America, he wakes at dawn in a room at the Staten Island Quarantine Grounds. He rouses his sons and then walks down to the pier to see the Luna, the vessel that will take him and his family to Liberia, Africa. Tolbert recalls the send-off ceremony held the previous day, July 4, 1836, when officials from the New York Colonization Society joined dozens of newly emancipated slaves and freeborn black people in singing hymns, praying, and listening to speeches. (The emigrants weren’t ill; the mayor had temporarily housed them at the quarantine grounds.) The next morning, Tolbert, his sons, his brother Austin, their former neighbor Agnes Harlan, and the other emigrants board the ship Luna and prepare to sail. The passengers endure seasickness and weeks of anticipation as they sail across the Atlantic. Every sunset leaves behind loved ones and everything that is familiar. Every sunrise tugs them toward a new life.
