Jehudi Ashmun | |
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4th and 6th Colonial Agent of Liberia | |
In office 8 August 1822 – 2 April 1824 | |
Preceded by | Elijah Johnson |
Succeeded by | Elijah Johnson |
In office 14 August 1824 – 26 March 1828 | |
Preceded by | Elijah Johnson |
Succeeded by | Lott Cary |
Personal details | |
Born | Champlain, New York, U.S. | 21 April 1794
Died | 25 August 1828 New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. | (aged 34)
Jehudi Ashmun (April 21, 1794 – August 25, 1828) was an American religious leader and social reformer from New England who helped lead efforts by the American Colonization Society to "repatriate" African Americans to a colony in West Africa. It founded the colony of Liberia in West Africa as a place to resettle free people of color from the United States.
Ashmun emigrated to Monrovia, Liberia in 1822, where he served as the United States government's agent (de facto governor) for two different terms: one from August 1822 until April 1824, and another from August 1824 until March 1828. His wife died there. Suffering ill health, he returned to the United States and died later that year.