Journey of Hope: The Back-to-Africa Movement in Arkansas in the Late 1800sUniv of North Carolina Press, 2005 M10 12 - 288 pages Liberia was founded by the American Colonization Society (ACS) in the 1820s as an African refuge for free blacks and liberated American slaves. While interest in African migration waned after the Civil War, it roared back in the late nineteenth century with the rise of Jim Crow segregation and disfranchisement throughout the South. The back-to-Africa movement held great new appeal to the South's most marginalized citizens, rural African Americans. Nowhere was this interest in Liberia emigration greater than in Arkansas. More emigrants to Liberia left from Arkansas than any other state in the 1880s and 1890s. In Journey of Hope, Kenneth C. Barnes explains why so many black Arkansas sharecroppers dreamed of Africa and how their dreams of Liberia differed from the reality. This rich narrative also examines the role of poor black farmers in the creation of a black nationalist identity and the importance of the symbolism of an ancestral continent. Based on letters to the ACS and interviews of descendants of the emigrants in war-torn Liberia, this study captures the life of black sharecroppers in the late 1800s and their dreams of escaping to Africa. |
From inside the book
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Page 2
... county. The hope for many African Americans centered on the Republic of Liberia in West Africa. As Africa's only independent black republic, Liberia encouraged and symbolized race pride for African Americans in the late 1800s. With an ...
... county. The hope for many African Americans centered on the Republic of Liberia in West Africa. As Africa's only independent black republic, Liberia encouraged and symbolized race pride for African Americans in the late 1800s. With an ...
Page 10
... County, Mississippi, a county that was 75 percent black. The Republican presidential candidate of 1880, James A. Garfield, received his lowest percentage of votes in states that had the highest proportion of black residents, while he ...
... County, Mississippi, a county that was 75 percent black. The Republican presidential candidate of 1880, James A. Garfield, received his lowest percentage of votes in states that had the highest proportion of black residents, while he ...
Page 15
... counties in the delta area of eastern Arkansas. There the democratic process enabled black politicians to occupy many ... County for the first post-Reconstruction General Assembly classes and nationalities brought clothing, baskets of ...
... counties in the delta area of eastern Arkansas. There the democratic process enabled black politicians to occupy many ... County for the first post-Reconstruction General Assembly classes and nationalities brought clothing, baskets of ...
Page 19
... Counties quickly elected Stanford as chairman of the Liberia Exodus Arkansas Colony. After considerable speechmaking ... County, near Little Rock, claimed that a hundred people were ready to go immediately, and 5,000 more would emigrate ...
... Counties quickly elected Stanford as chairman of the Liberia Exodus Arkansas Colony. After considerable speechmaking ... County, near Little Rock, claimed that a hundred people were ready to go immediately, and 5,000 more would emigrate ...
Page 20
... counties were organizing to go to Liberia. In August, Berry Colman, a black farmer and Baptist preacher who had served as Phillips County's elected representative to the state legislature, wrote the ACS asking for passage to Liberia ...
... counties were organizing to go to Liberia. In August, Berry Colman, a black farmer and Baptist preacher who had served as Phillips County's elected representative to the state legislature, wrote the ACS asking for passage to Liberia ...
Contents
1 | |
13 | |
The 1880s | 33 |
Liberia Fever 18881891 | 49 |
The Crisis of 1892 | 75 |
Five Troublemakers | 91 |
Six Missions | 107 |
Seven The Meaning of Africa | 123 |
Eight The Last Voyages | 135 |
Nine In Liberia | 149 |
Conclusion | 177 |
Notes | 195 |
Bibliography | 245 |
Index | 259 |
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Common terms and phrases
ACS reel African African Americans agent American Annual appeared applicants Arkansas arrived asked August Baptist became Bishop black Americans brought called Christian Church citizens City civilization claimed club Colonization color Conway Coppinger correspondence County December Democrats discussion early election emigration Exodus farmers February Gazette Henry hope immigrants interest interview James January John July June kansas labor land late later leaders leave letters Liberia Little Rock lived lynchings March meeting migration missionary Missions Monrovia months moved movement Negro newspaper North November October Office organized party Phillips political population president Printing race received Recorder refugees reported Republican returned Ridgel September settlers ship Smith Society South southern Stanford tion took town traveled Turner United University Press Voice vote wanted Washington women wrote York
Popular passages
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