Met by the Love of Liberty

Nyhet

History and Identity in Americo-Liberian Memory

Inbunden, Engelska, 2026

Av James Andrew Whitaker, Andrew N. Wegmann, Shawn P. Lambert, Andrew N Wegmann, Shawn P Lambert

1 459 kr

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Initially founded as a colony of the American Colonization Society in 1822 and declared an independent republic in 1847, the Republic of Liberia has challenged scholars across disciplines for almost as long as it has existed. Despite its territory being the home of Indigenous peoples for centuries, Liberia was imagined as a plan to relocate people of color primarily from the United States to West Africa as settler colonists. It then became a nation dominated by its original African-American founders and their descendants, who became known as Americo-Liberians. This group has shaped the political identity, social structure, and cultural standards of Liberia well into the 20th century, creating a remarkably complex legacy that both sparked and, in some ways, survived nearly two decades of civil conflict from which the nation is still rebuilding.Met by the Love of Liberty is an exploration of this complicated history, from Liberia's transatlantic origins to its complex and conflicted present. This collection of innovative essays emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach, combining African studies, anthropology, archaeology, history, linguistics, and cultural studies to produce a unique dialogue between the history of Liberia's national founding and its diverse contemporary historical memory and create a new, multifaceted understanding of Liberia's development and contemporary moment. Bringing together essays from leading scholars on Liberia's history and culture, Met by the Love of Liberty breaks new ground for discourse on how Liberia and other similar nations and communities can be studied today, telling a story of movement, displacement, national creation, and cultural and political memory and identity.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2026-09-01
Mått152 x 229 x undefined mm
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor296
FörlagIndiana University Press
ISBN9780253076182

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James Andrew Whitaker is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Southern Mississippi and an honorary research fellow at the University of St Andrews. He is the author of The Shamanism of Eco-Tourism: History and Ontology among the Makushi in Guyana. He is the coeditor (with Mark Harris) of Indigenous Alliance Making: Histories of Agency in Colonial Lowland South America, (with Chelsey Geralda Armstrong and Guillaume Odonne) Climatic and Ecological Change in the Americas: A Perspective from Historical Ecology, and (with Matthias Lewy and Tarryl Janik) of Sorcery in Amazonia: A Comparative Exploration of Magical Assault. Andrew N. Wegmann is Assistant Professor of History at Texas Tech University. He is the author of An American Color: Race and Identity in New Orleans and the Atlantic World and coeditor (with Robert Englebert) of French Connections: Cultural Mobility in North America and the Atlantic World, 1600–1875, which won the Wilson Prize for Canadian History. He is also coeditor of the journal History of Africa. Shawn P. Lambert is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Mississippi State University. His research focuses on community-engaged archaeology at late precontact and historic sites in the American southeast, with a special focus in the archaeology of enslavement. He is the coeditor (with Bretton T. Giles) of New Methods and Theories for Analyzing Mississippian Imagery and (with Giles and J. Grant Stauffer) of Archaeologies of Cosmoscapes in the Americas.

Foreword, by Jo M. SullivanAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Parallax of Americo-Liberian History and Memory, by Andrew N. Wegmann, James Andrew Whitaker, and Shawn P. LambertPart I: History1. The Monrovian Palimpsest: Race, Science, and American Identities in the Founding of Liberia, by Andrew N. Wegmann2. Providentialism and White Imagination in the Construction of Liberia and the African Colonization, by Ruth Vida Amwe3. Becoming Liberian in an American Settlement, by William E. AllenInterlude: Interview IFrom "Country Boy" to "Congo Man": An Americo-Liberian Adoptee VoicePart II: Commemoration4. Mirrored Mythology: "Molly Pitcher," Matilda Newport, and the Imagery of Early Settler Women in the Formation of Liberian National Identity, by Marie Stango5. Birth of a Nation: Matilda and Liberia, Memory and History, by Eric Burin6. Commemorating African Diaspora Heritage: An Exploration of Liberia's National Days, by Luisa SchneiderInterlude: Interview II"The Love of Liberty Met Me Here": An Indigenous Sapo VoicePart III: Legacies7. Before They Were Settlers: Material Culture from Prospect Hill in Mississippi to "Mississippi in Africa", by Shawn P. Lambert, Andrew N. Wegmann, and James Andrew Whitaker8. The African American Component of the Liberian Settler English of Sinoe County, by John Victor Singler9. Historical Memory in Sinoe County, by James Andrew Whitaker