African-American Exploration in West Africa: Four Nineteenth-Century Diaries

Front Cover
James Fairhead, Tim Geysbeek, Svend E. Holsoe, Melissa Leach
Indiana University Press, Nov 13, 2003 - History - 504 pages

In the 1860s, as America waged civil war, several thousand African Americans sought greater freedom by emigrating to the fledgling nation of Liberia. While some argued that the new black republic represented disposal rather than emancipation, a few intrepid men set out to explore their African home. African-American Exploration in West Africa collects the travel diaries of James L. Sims, George L. Seymour, and Benjamin J. K. Anderson, who explored the territory that is now Liberia and Guinea between 1858 and 1874. These remarkable diaries reveal the wealth and beauty of Africa in striking descriptions of its geography, people, flora, and fauna. The dangers of the journeys surface, too -- Seymour was attacked and later died of his wounds, and his companion, Levin Ash, was captured and sold into slavery again. Challenging the notion that there were no black explorers in Africa, these diaries provide unique perspectives on 19th-century Liberian life and life in the interior of the continent before it was radically changed by European colonialism.

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Contents

List of Illustrations vii
11
Introduction
17
Two Journeys in the Interior
31
Three James L Sims 1858
93
Seven The Journeys and the Interior
279
Notes
345
Bibliography
403
Index
451
Copyright

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Page 11 - It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness, — an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.
Page 65 - Sec. 2. The representatives shall be elected by and for the inhabitants of the several counties...
Page 165 - the good old rule, the simple plan«, have to be resorted to, a that those may take who have the power and those may keep who can...
Page 375 - Thee do we worship, and Thine aid we seek. Show us the straight way, The way of those on whom thou has bestowed Thy Grace, Those whose (portion) is not wrath. And who go not astray.
Page 11 - Let no man of us budge one step, and let slave-holders come to beat us from our country. America is more our country, than it is the whites— we have enriched it with our blood and tears.
Page 11 - What further is to be done with them?" join themselves in opposition with those who are actuated by sordid avarice only. Among the Romans emancipation required but one effort. The slave, when made free, might mix with, without staining the blood of his master. But with us a second is necessary, unknown to history. When freed, he is to be removed beyond the reach of mixture.
Page 332 - Hon. George L. Seymour, who had tried in vain to dissect it : and I being of that craft, he brought it to my shop for that purpose. When he brought it, it appeared like a craggy rock, of yellowish color on its surface, and, with a very small exception, it could not be separated but by heat and hard...
Page 179 - ... Boatswain country have many slaves.'"" The slave population is supposed to treble the number of free persons.** They are purchased chiefly from the Pessy, Boozie, and other tribes. Many are reduced to the condition of slaves, by being captured in war. Their chief labor is to perform the service of carriers for their masters in the trade of salt and country cloths carried between Boporu and Vannswah.
Page 333 - I am told by the natives that it is plentiful, and that about three days' walk from our present place of residence (Bassa Cove) it is got by digging and breaking rocks. It is also said to be in large lumps. In these parts the natives buy no * Read before the American Academy of Sciences. iron, but dig it out of the ground, or break the rocks and get at it, as the case may be.
Page 441 - Published by the Board of Foreign Missions of the United Lutheran Church in America for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Liberia, 1951.

About the author (2003)

James Fairhead is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Sussex.

Tim Geysbeek teaches history at Grand Valley Sate University and has taught at the ELWA Academy in Monrovia, Liberia. He has published his work in History in Africa and the Liberian Studies Journal.

Svend E. Holsoe is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Delaware. He has done extensive research on Liberia and is the founding editor of the Liberian Studies Journal.

Melissa Leach is Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. Her research interests include issues of gender, environment, science, and history. She is the author of Rainforest Relations.

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