Blacks preparingfor passage
*On this date, 1895, 200 former African slaves left Savannah, Georgia, for Liberia.
Much of this aid came through the American Colonization Society (ACS). The society also committed itself to fostering a public school system in Liberia, promoting more frequent ships between the U.S. and Liberia, collecting and circulating more reliable information about Liberia, and enabling Liberia to depend more on itself. Future colonists were to be selected with a view to Liberia's needs and not their own situations.
William Henry (Harrison) Heard led the group that used the money to purchase land and build the first African Methodist Episcopal Church in Monrovia, Liberia. This church stands now as the Elias Turner Memorial Chapel.
Black First:
2,000 years of extraordinary achievement
by Jessie Carney Smith
Copyright 1994 Visible Ink Press, Detroit, MI
ISBN 0-8103-9490-1
