Harrisburg

Web site profiles African-American emigration to Liberia

Building on years of research and two published books, a Penn State Harrisburg faculty member has created a Web site dedicated to profiling the historic African-American emigration to Liberia.

C. Patrick Burrowes, associate professor of communications and humanities, unveiled his interactive Web site, titled “Like a Motherless Child: African American Emigrants to Liberia, 1820-1904,” as part of a presentation to faculty, staff and students recently in the Gallery Lounge. Taken from the title of the well-known spiritual, “Like a motherless child expresses the overriding feeling of dispossession and alienation felt by the emigrants,” Burrowes said. Many of them former slaves, “they had no mother and they had no homeland."

African-Americans fled America for a number of reasons, Burrowes said. Restrictions placed on them and the lack of rights were contributing factors.

“But the reasons are more complicated and numerous,” he said. “Many of them could have gone to Canada or Haiti, but 19,000 chose Liberia for its ancestral connection to Africa.”

The Web site, http://www.liberianrepatriates.com/, provides information on individuals and can serve as an aid to African Americans tracking family history.

“The data set is rich for today’s families,” Burrowes said. He has identified 15,000 names of persons who went to Liberia and has gathered individual and personal stories to support the site. Among those are Newport Gardiner, the first African-American composer of classical music, who went to Liberia at age 75, noted poet George Moses Horton, and the first president of the African nation, Joseph Jenkins Roberts.

The expansive, searchable database contains information on a variety of topics including photos, documents, histories, vital statistics, cemeteries, dates and anniversaries, and places along with the list of names. Registration and access to the information is free.

“The key is telling the stories so the group is no longer like a motherless child,” Burrowes said, adding that among the ongoing tasks to be completed are adding images, links to other informational Web sites, additional biographies and collaborations with other researchers.

Burrowes joined the Penn State Harrisburg School of Humanities faculty in 2006, bringing with him decades of teaching and writing experience, including three years as chairperson of the Communications Studies Department at Morgan State University. He holds a doctorate from Temple University, teaches courses in the Communications program and is the author of "Power and Press Freedom in Liberia, 1830 to 1970," and co-author of "The Historical Dictionary of Liberia."

 

Last Updated December 1, 2009