Trans-Atlantic Sojourners

Book excerpt: Unique in its formation and in a citizenry made up largely of repatriated ex-slaves, Liberia has been the scene of a fascinating intercontinental history. Trans-Atlantic Sojourners enters this history through the experiences of one Americo-Liberian family. M. Neely Young introduces us to two patriarchs, both former slaves--Othello Richards of Rockbridge County, Virginia, and William Coleman of Fayette and Woodford Counties, Kentucky. From their arrival in the new African republic in the 1850s until the overthrow of Americo-Liberian rule in 1980, the family played a key role in the nation's economic affairs, representing the interests of the interior agriculturalists against the merchant elites of Monrovia, and was prominent as well in Liberia's political and cultural arenas. The author traces the family over a number of generations, revealing a course as dramatic as that of the country itself. With the violent upheaval of the 1980s, most of Richards' and Coleman's descendants escaped to America; in the time since, some have recently returned to Liberia. Encompassing the issues of slavery, white and black colonization, the tensions within the Americo-Liberian class, and the Liberian concept of "black republicanism," this family's narrative reflects historical patterns in Liberia and America that resonate to today.