The Caribbean-Americans: The Activists, Part 1

“I for one believe that if you give people a thorough understanding of what confronts them

and the basic causes that produce it, they’ll create their own program,

and when the people create a program, you get action.” — Malcolm X

What is activism really about if not a quest for wholeness, personal, even spiritual integrity. The next four individuals featured for Caribbean-American Heritage Month highlight the various approaches to seeking a universal wholeness in the socio-political sphere that seemed appropriate for their time. In part one of this two-part series, for John Brown Russwurm it was through dissemination of knowledge and self-determination through repatriation to Africa. In part two of the series, Muriel Pettioni sought healthcare access for the Harlem community and a voice for women in the medical community. Macolm X sought constitutional and civil rights, while Harry Belafonte advocated for civil rights and stood against the violation of the American desire, albeit self-determination, equality, civil liberties, and freedom. The quest is as old as the United States and it’s fight for sovereignty, but unlike the decisive victory over imperial rule, the Civil Rights Movement is more akin to the prolonged 40 year journey of Moses and the Israelites fated to wander the desert until the tribes attained a certain cohesive identity and spiritual maturity. Where does the movement stand today?

Somewhere between the circusry of Rachel Dolezal, and the soul-searing hateful act of Dylann Roof may lie a truth about race relations and civil rights in America, and in the world, for the matter, wherever violence and disenfranchisement based on ethnicity exists. To perpetuate the issue of race today seems as foolhardy and pigheaded as the recalcitrant denial of heliocentrism of a certain age. Race, it has been found, is scientifically unsubstantiated, merely a social construct. More than simply taking down emblems of racism and hatred, there is an opportunity to address the fear and misunderstanding of that truth, and it’s consequent displacement on others.

We will not dwell at length, rehashing the struggle then and now on it’s merit, but simply recognize how Caribbean-Americans have featured in a significant, ongoing aspect of American culture. In doing so, perhaps in the least it will highlight what has been tried, how that worked, what appeared to have failed but could work with constancy, what remains to be done, and what new, different approaches might be considered.

John Brown Russwurm, 1799-1851

John Russwurm
via russwurm.org

Governor, Publisher, Abolitionist

Founder, 1st Black-owned Newspaper, Freedom Journal

Governor (1836-1851), Cape Palmas, Liberia

Position: Repatriation to Africa—the Liberian Experiment

“the universal emancipation so ardently desired by us; by all our friends, can never take place, unless some door is opened whereby the emancipated may be removed as fast as they drop their galling chains, to some other land besides the free states."[1]

John Brown Russwurm was born in 1799, Port Antonio, Jamaica, to an English father and an unidentified Jamaican black woman, likely a slave. It is not said what became of John’s mother, but when John reached 8 years old, John’s father sent him to Quebec, Canada for his education. A few years later, in 1812, Russwurm senior, relocated to Portland, Maine with his 13-year old son, where he married a widow, Susan Blanchard in the following year. Susan Blanchard seemed certainly a woman of formidable heart, as it is stated that she pressed the elder Russworm to fully acknowledge his son by granting him the family name. John Brown Russworm remained in the Blanchard-Russworm family after his father died just two years later, and Susan Blanchard-Russworm remarried.

A different account  states that in Maine, the adolescent John Brown was home-schooled, then attended preparatory institutes before enrolling at Bowdoin College. At some point before attending college, John returned to Jamaica.  It is not said if he had contact with his mother and extended family, but after a “brief, unhappy visit” John returned to Portland Maine and began collegiate study in Fall of 1824, he was 25 years old. A rare opportunity for blacks in that time, John completed his studies, and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1826 with valedictory honors. John’s advocacy for freedom and repatriation of blacks to Africa was evident in his commencement address, titled “The Condition and Prospects of Hayti.”

"He claimed that Haitians, having overthrown French rule, exemplified the truth that it is the irresistible course of events that all men, who have been deprived of their liberty, shall recover this previous portion of their indefeasible inheritance.' That a young man partially of African descent had graduated from college, the second or third nonwhite to do so in the United States, and had spoken so eloquently of freedom garnered attention from several newspapers and journals, which published extracts of his remarks. Bowdoin College awarded Russwurm an honorary master of arts degree in 1829."[1]

A year later after various teaching jobs in Maine, Philadelphia, and New York John, along with Samuel Cornish, a Presbyterian minister, established the Freedom Journal, the first newspaper in the United States owned, operated, published and edited by African-Americans. Russworm presumably supported himself by teaching evening adult education classes advertised in the paper.

russwurm.org

“The editors declared in the inaugural issue, on 16 March 1827, that they wanted to disseminate useful knowledge of every kind among an estimated 500,000 free persons of color, to bring about their moral, religious, civil, and literary improvement, and, most important of all, to plead their cause, including their civil rights, to the public. They emphasized the value of education and self-help. Although they vowed that the journal would not become the advocate of any partial views either in politics or in religion, it spoke clearly for the abolition of slavery in the United States and opposed the budding movement to colonize freed blacks in Africa. Weekly issues carried a variety of material: poetry, letters of explorers and others in Africa, information on the status of slaves in slaveholding states, legislation pending or passed in states that affected blacks, notices of job openings, and personal news such as marriages and obituaries.”[1]

The partnership with Cornish was short lived when he resigned the paper six months later, presumably over disagreement with Russworm’s unpopular position on repatriation of blacks to Africa.

Russwurm was becoming convinced that blacks could not achieve equality with whites in the United States and that emigration to Africa was their best hope. In one of his last editorials, he wrote that "the universal emancipation so ardently desired by us & by all our friends, can never take place, unless some door is opened whereby the emancipated may be removed as fast as they drop their galling chains, to some other land besides the free states."

The final issue of the journal appeared on 28 March 1829, whereupon, two months later, Cornish resumed its editorship under a new title, The Rights of All. His vigorous denunciation of the colonization movement in fact represented the majority view among slaves and free blacks.” [1]

worldportsource.org

In fall of 1829, John Russworm put his repatriation views to the test and emigrated to Monrovia, capital of Liberia, “an American colony established by the American Colonization Society, a national group that favored the voluntary repatriation of blacks to Africa as a solution to accelerating racial problems.” He was appointed to the posts of Colonial Secretary and Superintendent of Education in Monrovia with purview of Editor of the government run, Liberia Herald newspaper. Russworm immersed himself in Liberian culture, learning several native languages. He was appointed as Agent of Trade for the to promote agriculture and trade diplomacy among neighboring countries and colonial whites. Some policies of the ACS did not mesh well with Russworm’s repatriation views which along with calls for independence of the Herald led to his removal as Editor and his appointments in 1835.

By then a new colony, Cape Palmas, had been established in 1834 by the Maryland State Colonization Society, south of Monrovia. Russworm was appointed to govern the newly formed colony, a post he held for 15 years until his death. Some of his accomplishments as Governor of Cape Palmas include,

Cape Palmas, Liberia
wikipedia.org

…(establishing) a currency system, improved business procedures, and (adopting) a legal code. He attempted to smooth relations with neighboring African groups but, having mixed success, enlarged the militia and encouraged the American African Squadron, whose goal was the suppression of the slave trade, to visit along the coast as a display of support. He worked to stimulate agriculture, both by the colonists on their own farms and by the enlargement of the public farm on which he planted a nursery and experimented with various crops. He oversaw numerous public improvements and the addition of territory to the colony.[1]

It took three stages in his career development to demonstrate the possibility of successful implementation of the idea of repatriating African-Americans to Africa, and one might conclude that John Brown Russworm did much to realize his “universal desire.”

Russwurm's judicious application of the colony's constitution and ordinances, political preeminence over the often fractious settlers, and ability to govern well with decreasing supervision of the board in Baltimore coincided with a mounting demand among the colonists in the late 1840s that Maryland in Liberia either be granted independence or that it seek annexation to the newly created Republic of Liberia. The governor himself seems not to have taken a stand, possibly because of his disappointment with the current generation of colonists, whom he characterized as still too unenlightened to accomplish much.[1]

The repatriation experiment may have lost its appeal when John Brown Russworm, a Caribbean American, first non-white Governor of the Liberian repatriation colonies, died June 1851. He was 52 years old.

Next: The Activists, Part 2; The Statesmen. Read about the Founders here.


Reference:

1. American National Biography Online: Russwurm, John Brown. (n.d.). Retrieved June 26, 2015, from http://www.anb.org/articles/04/04-00877.html
2. John Brown Russwurm. (n.d.). Retrieved June 26, 2015, from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown_Russwurm
3. John Brown Russwurm. (n.d.). Retrieved June 26, 2015, from http://russwurm.org/JBR/