The Liberia Herald, John Russwurm’s African Newspaper.
Only one other copy of this inaugural reissue (No. 4), of June 6, 1830 is known. The American Colonization Society in 1826 was given a printing press which was sent to Liberia, a land on Africa’s Western Coast settled by freed black slaves from the United States. Emancipated American slave, Charles L. Force, began publishing the Liberia Herald, the colony’s first newspaper, but died from fever after three issues.
The paper was revived in 1830 by Edward Blyden, an anti-colonial and academic who emigrated from St. Thomas, V.I. Another new arrival, John B. Russwurm (1799-1851), the co-publisher of the first African American newspaper in the U.S. (Freedom’s Journal, New York, 1827), took over as editor the same year, but quit in 1835 to protest U.S. colonization policy.
Published monthly on four pages, the redeemed newspaper here reports on “King Boatswain’s War,” concerning an African kingdom which was attacking other tribes. In part:
“Boatswain is certainly the Napoleon of our land … Of the destination of the other body of (Boatswain’s) warriors, we are unable to say one word: it is reasonable however to suppose, that they are destined to attack and enslave, some of the weaker tribes in his vicinity. For our Colony, we feel no fear, as Boatswain has ever manifested himself very friendly perhaps more so, than any single influential man among his people.” The article goes on to say the king had been successful in carrying off 250 slaves – a verification of Africans enslaving other Africans.
In December 1831 the Maryland state legislature voted to appropriate $10,000 per year ($275,000 today) for 26 years to the Maryland State Colonization Society to transport free blacks and ex-slaves to Africa, while also providing rent, 5 acres, and interest-free loans to any who stayed. Despite, or perhaps because of this, in 1832 Maryland coerced its free blacks to expurgate by rescinding their right to vote, serve on juries, and hold public office. Unemployed ex-slaves with no visible means of support could even be re-enslaved. In 1836 the Maryland Colony (a legal extension of that U.S. state until 1854) appointed Russwurm its first black governor and he remained so until his death in 1851. Monrovia, Liberia.