Dear Diary,I finished reading a sample book from our Diaspora collection. I completed my 10 suggested titles from our selection resources including Blackwell, WorldCat, Bolerium, Alibris, selected bibliographies etc...
The book I read was "Making the Black Atlantic : Britain and the African diaspora." I learned a lot and something new I learned was about the attempts by the British to send their freed slaves to Sierra Leone (similar to the American Colonization Society.)
Resettlement of Freed Slaves
The Sierra Leone resettlement scheme was designed to provide a new life for 400 destitute mainly black people in London. This was also seen by some as a good way of disposing of a troublesome minority. Olaudah Equiano was appointed commissary of provisions and stores for the emigrant poor going to Sierra Leone.
Following the American war of independence there was also a large number of slaves and freed slaves who had fought for the British. These black loyalists were rewarded with land in Nova Scotia, but the hostility of white loyalists and the harsh climate made them sign up for Sierra Leone too.
They were followed by Maroons - slaves who had rebelled against the British in Jamaica and been sent to Nova Scotia as punishment; given the choice, the Maroons left Nova Scotia too for Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone was made a colony in 1808 and the hinterland was proclaimed a protectorate in 1896. In the early years of the colony Sierra Leoneans were great traders. In the middle of the 19th century, Sierra Leone became a great centre for education in West Africa and beyond.
Liberia was colonised in 1822 by freed slaves coming directly from America through the administration of the American Colonisation Society. Independence was achieved in 1847 under J.J. Roberts, who was born a free man in Norfolk Virginia. He was a successful and ambitious trader, with great diplomatic skills, and was noted for his public speaking.
"When we look abroad and see by what slow and painful steps, marked with blood and ills of every kind, other states of the world have advanced to liberty and independence, we can not but admire and praise that all gracious Providence, who by his unerring ways, has, with so few sufferings on our part, compared with other states, led us to this happy stage in our progress towards those great and important objects…
He will miraculously make Liberia a paradise, and deliver us, in a moment of time from all the ills and inconveniences consequent upon the peculiar circumstances under which we are placed…"J.J. Robert's Inaugural Address.
However much Liberians resented America it continued to be a point of reference for the Liberian elite. The indigenous people in turn were hostile to these newcomers from overseas and harassed and attacked them regularly throughout the 19th century.
"The natives have been kept in a state of rebellion, by influence of one Grando, a chief, who was always opposed to the life of civilisation. Although he sold a tract of land to the government, and received payment, giving his signature, still he has always acted the rogue. He has ever kept Bassa tribe in a state of hostility to the emigrants and the government."History of Republic Liberia, by a resident of Monrovia.
Back in America some abolitionists attacked Liberia for being a place to dump freed slaves, so confusing the issue of emancipation. Like the elite of Sierra Leone, the Liberians of Monrovia focussed more and more on the professions - medicine, law, administration - rather than trade. Education at home and abroad became hugely prized.
In the 1880's Liberia came up against European colonial ambition, first losing territory to British-ruled Sierra Leone; then the south east of the country was taken by France in 1891 with subsequent territorial losses around the 1900's. However, Liberia along with Ethiopia had the distinction of being self-ruling in Sub-Saharan Africa, where everywhere else was under colonial rule.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/9chapter9.shtml
History of Liberia
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/libhtml/liberia.html
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My assignment for the week was to locate 10 Titles that I would recommend for the collection based on the profile:
10 Titles:
I used the forms in the Approvals Room
From my email list using RedlightGreen.com
From Afro-Cuban Rhythms to Latin Jazz
ISBN: 0520247078 (cloth : alk. paper) 0520247086 (pbk. : alk. paper)
An essay on the treatment and conversion of African slaves in the British sugar colonies
MICROFORM
<>Empire, Enslavement, and Freedom in the
ISBN: 0714634697 (hard cover)
From Choice Book “African and African-American Studies”
The
ISBN: 0521361664
Slave Women in the New World : Gender Stratification in the
ISBN: 0700603948 (alk. paper)
