© 2016 Sammer Saleh Jones. All Rights Reserved
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© 2016 Sammer Saleh Jones. All rights reserved. THE SWEET, SWEET SOUND OF LIBERTY: BLACK SETTLERS AND THEIR EARLY EDUCATION INITIATIVE IN LIBERIA 1820-1860 BY SAMMER SALEH JONES DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Policy Studies in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2016 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Christopher M. Span, Chair Professor James D. Anderson Associate Professor Yoon K. Pak Professor Eboni Zamani-Gallaher ii Abstract This dissertation examines early educational initiatives in Liberia, West Africa, from 1820–1860: a period where colonization to Liberia was voluntary, supported by the American Colonization Society, and therefore attracting many colonists. The traditional narrative of Liberia’s unique history was built on colonization, Christianization, and Westernization. The history of silencing the voices of Black Americans has been a practice in early historiography of Liberia. As a result, it has overlooked the important role freed Blacks from the United States played in the formation of Liberia’s educational system. Black Americans arrived in three successive waves; each group contributed to the development of Liberia’s educational, social, and political institutions. While struggling to survive malaria and negotiate conflicts with white colonists, native Africans, and each other, Black settlers navigated their new environment while transplanted their acquired Western culture and Christian faith from the United States. By charting this process, this study also offers a unique social history as well as an educational history during a time where Black settlers’ identities begin to change from American to Americo-Liberian. Through a critical examination of archival documents—including narratives from Black and white colonists, journals, and memoirs—I provide a multilayered account of the processes that led to the foundation of Liberia’s existing educational system. iii Dedication To my children, Silas, Samaia and Sidney To my parents Adib and Bertha Saleh To my siblings, Jandi, Fadi, Samer, and Shadi Lastly, to my partner in crime, best friend, better half and my gracious blessing from God, my husband Douglas. iv Acknowledgements If you had asked me ten years ago where I saw myself in the future, the answer certainly was not: Completing a doctorate degree at the University of Illinois. Like everything else in my life, God directed my path and placed the right people in strategic places in my life to guide and mentor me to where He wanted me. I am thankful for this opportunity to acknowledge those people who nurtured, encouraged and prayed with me, and for me, as I completed my dissertation. This dissertation would not be possible without the support and guidance of my rock star committee members: Drs. Christopher Span, James D. Anderson, Yoon Pak, and Eboni Zamani-Gallaher. However, I would be remiss if I were not to extend my personal and sincere gratitude to my advisor and chair of my committee, Dr. Span. He both encouraged me to pursue an advanced degree and became my biggest cheerleader during the process. His black leather chair was always available whenever I needed a therapy session that always began with me talking about quitting. He listened to me whine about how painfully challenging it was to balance family life and academic life. I never left his sight without feeling confident and worthy of being exactly where I was. I am forever grateful to him. I am also grateful to Dr. Pak, who holds a special place in my heart for her dedication and passion in shaping the next generation of scholars: Thank you for shaping my life. In addition, I am honored to have amazing scholar friends who read my dissertation and offered me support and feedback during my writing process: Drs. Reitumetse Obakeng Mabokela and Karen Flynn. I am also indebted to Dr. Eric Burin who graciously shared research sources with me and Dr. Verlon Stone who assisted me while at the archive in Indiana. v I am thankful to my Sorors of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. who spent the last seven years cheering me on: Kaamilyah, Nameka, Tamara, Asia, Dawn, Jacqueline, and all of my sweet sorors of the everlasting, everloving Epsilon Chapter and Epsilon Epsilon Omega Chapter. I am especially grateful to my sister friends who fed me, assisted with my children so I could write, and kept me balanced: Marlean, Paula, Ann, Gail, Lina, Mayra, Mary Ann, Doyla, Tiffani, Nicole, Japhia, Angela, and Trina. To my cohorts in EPOL, you all have inspired me: Elka, Tam, Angie, Mia, Tony, Kevin, Chanee, Anderson, Erin and Carey. I am forever indebted to my family for the unwavering love, support and prayers. My siblings, my nieces (Ashley, Maya, Sienna, Savannah) and nephews (Lucian, Alvin, Ethan, Hayden, Zayden, and Parker); my aunt Vickie and cousins Steven and Jennifer; my in-laws, Phillip and Arletha Jones; sisters-in-laws, Errin, Nicole and Shanita; and, my road dog/sister/cousin Youbide Etienne. To my business mentor Irving Logan, thank you for the time you invested in making sure my business was in order while my focus was redirected to my research. I would not be here without all of your continual phone calls, texts, and emails. Lastly, to the man who makes me feel that I am the luckiest, smartest, funniest, and loveliest woman in the world, my wonderful husband and the love of my life, Douglas. You inspire me to follow my dreams despite the tremendous sacrifice to our family. Time after time, we have proven that together, we can conquer the world! WE DID IT, BABY! vi Table of Contents Map of Liberia .................................................................................................................. vii Map of the Early Settlement ............................................................................................ viii Chapter 1 Liberia: Its Founding, Its People, and Its Plan to Civilize and Christianize Africa .....................................................................................................1 Chapter 2 The American Colonization Movement, 1800–1820...................................26 Chapter 3 The Foundation of American Education on African Soil: The First Wave of Settlers, 1822–1830.......................................................................... 55 Chapter 4 Their God and their Education: The Second Wave of Settlers, 1830–1850..........................................................................................................................91 Chapter 5 Higher Education in the Era of Independence, 1848-1860 .....................125 Chapter 6 Conclusion ....................................................................................................147 Bibliography ...................................................................................................................156 vii Map of Liberia Courtesy of http://www.liberiapastandpresent.org/liberia_detailed_map.htm viii Map of the Early Settlement 1 Chapter 1 Liberia: Its Founding, Its People, and Its Plan to Civilize and Christianize Africa If Asked to describe my homeland in a sentence, I might say something like this: Liberia is a wonderful, beautiful, mixed-up country struggling mightily to find itself. —Ellen Johnson Sirleaf In her memoir, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman elected president of Liberia (the first female president in Africa) describes Liberia in a sentence that beautifully expresses the complexities and richness of its unique history.1 Liberia is a country with an identity tied to America’s peculiar history of slavery and racism, a country founded on the premise of freedom and liberty, which developed into an independent nation on the western coast of Africa governed by and for Black Americans. Johnson Sirleaf grew up a part of the elite class in Liberia, attended one of the country’s best private schools, and continued to the United States for college. She achieved this status in part because her father, a native Liberian, was reared and educated by one of the elite Black American descendants to become a lawyer. Her mother was mixed race (German and native Liberian) who never met her father. Although Johnson Sirleaf grew up privileged, her native Liberian roots reminded her of the experiences of the side where a vast majority of Liberians lived for the 150 years before ending the rule of the American-Liberian (descendants of free Blacks from the United States) class in the 1980 military coup that eventually led to fourteen years of civil war.2 How could a country, described as being 1 Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa’s First Woman President (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2009), 1. 2 Helen Cooper, “Madam President,” The New York Times Sunday Book Review, 15 May 2009, Accessed 24 July 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/books/review/Cooper-t.html 2 wonderful and beautiful, a land of the free, create hostility and division amongst its people? What role did education play in this unrest? Liberia In 1821, a small colony on the Western Coast of Africa became the home to free and emancipated Blacks who left the United States with hopes and dreams of starting a new life in a country where their basic freedoms would not be denied. This colony became known as Liberia. It was founded by the American Colonization Society (ACS), an organization of white men who saw colonization as the only way of decreasing the