The San Diego World Affairs Council
SDWAC is honored to co-sponsor for the first time an exciting virtual event with Friends of Liberia*
“Liberty Brought Us Here:
The True Story of American Slaves Who Migrated to Liberia”
Thursday, 20 August 2020 @ 5-6 pm (PDT)
Between 1820 and 1913, approximately 16,000 black people left the United States to start new lives in Liberia, Africa, in what was at the time the largest out-migration in US history. When Tolbert Major, a former Kentucky slave and single father, was offered his own chance for freedom, he accepted. He, several family members, and seventy other people boarded the ship Luna on July 5, 1836. After they arrived in Liberia, Tolbert penned a letter to his former owner, Ben Major: "Dear Sir, We have all landed on the shores of Africa and got into our houses... None of us have been taken with the fever yet."
Drawing on extensive research and fifteen years' worth of surviving letters, author Susan E. Lindsey illuminates the trials and triumphs of building a new life in Liberia, where settlers were free but struggled to acclimate themselves to an unfamiliar land, coexist with indigenous groups, and overcome disease and other dangers. Liberty Brought Us Here: The True Story of American
Slaves Who Migrated to Liberia explores the motives and attitudes of colonization supporters and those who lived in the colony, offering perspectives beyond the standard narrative that colonization was driven solely by racism or forced exile.
Lindsey is the former director of Women Who Write and is a member of several historical societies and the Liberian Studies Association. She also co-authored and edited “Speed Family Heritage Recipes,” a historical cookbook of recipes from the Speed family, who built Farmington Plantation in Louisville, Kentucky. She has published several essays and short stories. A native of Washington state, Susan has lived in Louisville for 20 years.
You are invited to a Zoom meeting
There are two simple steps to virtually attend this Zoom meeting:
-
Please RSVP yes to this event on the SDWAC website
https://sdwac.org/event-3934830 so you will receive a reminders about this event
- Use this Zoom link to join the meeting on 8/20: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88238426172
*Any registration questions? Please e-mail: sdwac@sdwac.org
*[Friends of Liberia (FoL) is a 501(c)3 non-governmental, non-profit organization that seeks to positively affect Liberia and Liberians through education, social, economic, and humanitarian programs and through advocacy efforts. It is based in Washington, D.C. with members, mostly former Peace Corps Liberia volunteers, living throughout the United States and in several foreign countries.]
