People, Locations, Episodes

Wed, 03.15.1809

Joseph Roberts, Liberia’s First President born

*This date celebrates the birth of Joseph Jenkins Roberts in 1809. He was a Black nationalist during American slavery.

Roberts was born in Petersburg, Virginia, the son of free Blacks with over seven-eighths white heritage. At age 20, he immigrated to Liberia with his mother and younger brothers.  He became a merchant and an unofficial aide to the white governor of the colony, Thomas H. Buchanan, of the American Colonization Society, which sought the return of African freedmen to Africa.  On Buchanan’s death in 1842, Roberts was appointed the first Black governor of the colony.

In efforts to establish the political and economic stability of the colony, Roberts and other colonists sought treaties with native tribes and recognition from foreign powers.  In 1847, they proclaimed the new republic of Liberia, electing Roberts as their first president. In 1849, during a visit to England, he secured British recognition of Liberia as a sovereign nation, and in 1852, in another trip to continental Europe, he acquired recognition from other powers.

From 1856, he served as president of the new Liberia College and again as president of the republic during a prolonged financial crisis from 1872 to 1876.  Joseph Roberts died on February 24, 1876, in Monrovia, Liberia.

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