Elijah Johnson (agent)

For the fictional character, see Elijah Johnson (Home and Away). For the basketball player, see Elijah Johnson (basketball).

Elijah Johnson (c. 1789[A] – April 3, 1849) was an African American who was one of the first colonial agents of the American Colonization Society in what later became Liberia. He was probably born in New Jersey and received some limited schooling in New Jersey and New York. He served as a soldier in the War of 1812 and studied for the Methodist ministry. In 1835 he led a company of 120 armed volunteers from Monrovia on a punitive expedition to engage King Joe as a result of the Port Cresson massacre.[1][2][3][4] His son Hilary R. W. Johnson was elected in 1884 as President of Liberia, the first to have been born in the country.

  1. ^ Burrowes, Carl Patrick (2000). Historical Dictionary of Liberia. Scarecrow Press. p. 268. ISBN 1461659310.
  2. ^ Robinson, Philip (2012). Travel Sketches from Liberia: Johann Büttikofer's 19th Century Rainforest Explorations in West Africa. BRILL. pp. 428–430. ISBN 978-9004233478.
  3. ^ Kocher, Kurt Lee (April 1984). "A Duty to America and Africa: A History of the Independent African Colonization Movement In Pennsylvania". Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies. 51 (2): 118–131.
  4. ^ Clegg, Claude Andrew (2009). The Price of Liberty: African Americans and the Making of Liberia. University of North Carolina Press. pp. 145–146. ISBN 978-0807895580.