March 15, 2011 <Back to Index>
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Joseph Jenkins Roberts (March 15, 1809 – February 24, 1876) was the first and seventh President of Liberia (1848 - 1856 and 1872 - 1876). Born free in Norfolk, Virginia, USA, Roberts emigrated to Liberia in 1829 as a young man. He opened a trading store in Monrovia, and later engaged in politics. When Liberia became independent in 1847, Roberts was elected the first president, serving until 1856. In 1872 he was elected again to serve as Liberia's seventh president. Joseph was born free in Norfolk, Virginia, the second oldest of seven children. His father was said to be a Welsh planter. His mother Amelia, described as a light-skinned mulatto, was for a time the man's slave and consort. He freed Amelia when she was quite young. Amelia gave all her children but one the middle name of Jenkins, which suggests it may have been the name of their biological father. As a free woman, Amelia married James Roberts, a free negro; he was a stepfather who gave Joseph and the other children his surname and raised them as his own. Roberts owned a boating business on the James River. By the time of his death, he had acquired substantial wealth for an African American of his day. Joseph Roberts was more than half European in ancestry. As the Liberian historian Abayomi Karnga noted in 1926, "He was not really black; he was an octoroon and could have easily passed for a white man." As a boy, Joseph began to work in his stepfather's business, handling goods on a flatboat that transported materials from Petersburg to Norfolk on the James River. The family moved to Petersburg, Virginia, which was an industrial city. Shortly after the move, James Roberts died. Joseph continued to work in his family's business, but also served as an apprentice in a barber shop. The owner of the barber shop, William Colson, was also a minister and one of Virginia's best educated black residents. He gave Roberts access to his private library, which was a source of much of his early education. Roberts married an 18-year-old woman named Sarah in 1828. They had an infant child with them when they emigrated to Liberia. Both Sarah and the child died in the first year in the colony. Some time after Sarah's death in Liberia, Roberts married again, to Jane Rose Waring, the daughter of Harriet Graves and Colston Waring of Norfolk and Petersburg, Virginia, who had also migrated to the colony. After hearing of the plans of the American Colonization Society to colonize the African coast at Cape Mesurado near modern-day Monrovia, the Roberts family decided to join an expedition. The restrictions of the Black Code in Virginia on free blacks played an important part. In addition, the Roberts family was strongly religious and wanted to evangelize the indigenous people of Africa. On February 9, 1829 they set off for Africa on the Harriet. Joseph Roberts, his wife Sarah and their unnamed infant traveled to Liberia together, along with his mother and five of his six siblings. On the same ship was James Spriggs Payne, who would later become Liberia's fourth president. In Monrovia, Roberts and his two brothers established a business with the help of their friend William Colson of Petersburg. The company exported palm products, camwood, and ivory to the United States, and traded imported American goods at the company store in Monrovia. In 1835, Colson emigrated to Liberia, but died shortly after his arrival. Expanding into coastal trade, the Roberts family became successful members of the local establishment. During this time, Joseph's brother John Wright Roberts entered the ministry of the Liberia Methodist Church, founded by Americans. Later he became a bishop. After starting as a trader, the youngest son, Henry Roberts, studied medicine at the Berkshire Medical School (now part of the University of Massachusetts Medical School) in Massachusetts. Joseph Roberts was successful enough to pay for his brother's studies. Henry returned to Liberia to work as a physician. In 1833, Joseph Roberts became high sheriff of
the colony. One of his responsibilities was to organize settler
militias to travel to the interior to collect taxes from the indigenous
peoples and put down their rebellions against colonial rule. In 1839,
the American Colonization Society appointed Roberts vice governor. Two
years later, after the death of governor Thomas Buchanan,
Roberts was appointed as the first mixed-race governor of Liberia. In
1846, Roberts asked the legislature to declare the independence of
Liberia, but also to maintain cooperation with the American
Colonization Society. The legislature called for a referendum, in which
voters chose independence. On July 26, 1847, Roberts declared Liberia
independent. He won the first presidential election on October 5, 1847, and was sworn into office on January 3, 1848, with Stepehn Allen Benson as vice president. Roberts
was re-elected three more times to serve a total of eight years, until
he lost the election in 1855 to the vice president Benson. Attempts to found a state based upon some 3000 settlers proved difficult. Some coastal tribes converted to Christianity and learned English, but most of the indigenous Africans retained their traditional religion and language. The slave trade continued illicitly from Liberian ports, but the British Navy finally closed it down in the 1850s. Roberts
spent the first year of his presidency attempting to attain recognition
from European countries and the United States. In 1848 he traveled to Europe to meet Queen Victoria and other heads of state. Great Britain was the first country to recognize Liberia, followed by France in 1848 or 1852 (accounts differ). In 1849, the German cities of Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck recognized the new nation, as did Portugal, Brazil, the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Austrian Empire. Norway and Sweden did so in either 1849 or 1863, Haiti in either 1849 or 1864, Denmark in either 1849 or 1869 (accounts differ). The
United States withheld recognition until 1862, during the presidency of
Abraham Lincoln. Reportedly the government feared that the southern
congressmen would not accept a black ambassador in Washington, D.C. Maryland Colony declared
in 1854 its independence from the Maryland State Colonization Society
but did not become part of the Republic of Liberia. It held the land
along the coast between the Grand Cess and San Pedro Rivers. In 1856,
the independent state of Maryland (Africa) requested military aid from Liberia in a war with the Grebo and Kru peoples.
They were resisting the Maryland colonists' efforts to control their
trade. Roberts assisted the Marylanders, and a joint military campaign
by the two groups of African-American colonists resulted in victory. In
1857, the Republic of Maryland joined Liberia as Maryland County. During
his presidency, Roberts expanded the borders of Liberia along the coast
and made attempts to integrate the indigenous people of Monrovia into
the Republic. By 1860, through treaties and purchases with local
African leaders, Liberia extended its boundaries to include a 600-mile
(1000 km) coastline. The settlers built schools and Liberia College (which later became the University of Liberia). During these early years, agriculture, shipbuilding, and trade flourished.
Roberts
has been described as a talented leader with diplomatic skills. His
leadership was instrumental in giving Liberia independence and
sovereignty. Later in his career, his diplomatic skills helped him to
deal effectively with the indigenous people and to maneuver in the
complex field of international law and relations.
After
his first presidency, Roberts served for fifteen years as a major
general in the Liberian army, as well as a diplomatic representative in
France and Great Britain. In 1862, he helped to found and became the
first president of Liberia College in Monrovia, where he served as president until 1876. Roberts
frequently traveled to the United States to raise funds for the
college. Until his death he held a professorship in jurisprudence and
international law. In 1871, president Edward James Roye was deposed by elements loyal to the Republican Party on
the grounds that he was planning to cancel the upcoming elections.
Roberts, one of the Republican Party's leaders, won the ensuing
presidential election and thus returned to office in 1872. He served
for two terms until 1876. While he was incapacitated by illness from
1875 until early 1876, Vice-President Anthony W. Gardiner was acting president. In
the decades after 1868, escalating economic difficulties weakened the
state's dominance over the coastal indigenous population. Conditions
worsened — the cost of imports was far greater than the income generated
by exports of coffee, rice, palm oil, sugarcane, and timber. Liberia
tried desperately to modernize its largely agricultural economy. Roberts
died on February 24, 1876, less than two months after his second term
had ended. In his testament, he left $10,000 and his estate to the
educational system of Liberia. Liberia's main airport, Roberts International Airport, the town of Robertsport and Roberts Street in Monrovia are named in honor of Roberts. His
face is depicted on the Liberian ten dollar bill introduced in 1997,
and the old five dollar bill in circulation between 1989 and 1991. His birthday, March 15, is a national holiday in Liberia. |