Jehudi Ashmun

Jehudi Ashmun (April 21, 1794 – August 25, 1828) was a religious leader and social reformer born in Champlain, New York. Ashmun was the leader of a group of settlers and missionaries who came to Liberia on the ship "Elizabeth" in 1822. He was an agent of the American Colonization Society which promoted the settlement of blacks at Monrovia, Liberia and effectively governor of the colony from 1824 to 1828. He was also the United States representative to Liberia in 1822.

During his tenure in Liberia, Ashmun increased agriculture output, annexed more tribal land, and exploited the commercial opportunities in the interior of Africa. He helped create the a constitution for Liberia that gave positions to blacks inside the government, unlike the neighboring Sierra Leone, which was dominated by whites. Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) was originally Chartered as Ashmun Institute in 1854 in honor of Jehudi Ashmun. He is interred in Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut.

He had previously been the first principal, and one of the first two professors, of the Bangor Theological Seminary in Bangor, Maine. He retained this professorship after leaving for Liberia, only resigning in 1827. While still in the United States Ashmun had also edited the ACS' newspaper, "The African Intelligencer". His letters home and a subsequent book constitute the earliest written history of the Liberia colony. [Frederick Freeman, "A Plea for Africa" (1837), p. 226; "American Quarterly Register" (1842), pp. 29-30]

References

*Frankie Hutton, “Economic Considerations in the American Colonization Society’s Early Effort to Emigrate Free Blacks to Liberia, 1816-36.” "The Journal of Negro History" (1983)
*P. J. Staudenraus, "The African Colonization Movement 1816-1865" (New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)
*Charles I. Foster, “The Colonization of Free Negroes, in Liberia, 1816-1835.” "The Journal of Negro History" (1985)

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