Alfred Francis Russell
Encyclopedia
Alfred Francis Russell served as the tenth President of Liberia from 1883 to 1884. He immigrated to Liberia
Liberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...

 in 1833 with his mother, Amelie "Milly" Crawford, his cousin, Lucretia Russell and her four children Cynthia, Gilbert, George, and Henry. He served as a Methodist missionary and later owned a large coffee and sugarcane farm. Russell remained in the ministry and served in the Senate as well. He was elected vice-president under Anthony William Gardiner in 1881, becoming President of Liberia on the latter's resignation due to poor health.

Early life

Russell was born in Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...

, the son of Amelie "Milly" Crawford. Russell was born a slave to his then-master Jane Hawkins Todd Irvine. He and his mother were sold to Robert Wickliffe and Mary Owen Todd Russell Wickliffe or Mrs. Polly as he and his mother called her, a wealthy heiress
Beneficiary
A beneficiary in the broadest sense is a natural person or other legal entity who receives money or other benefits from a benefactor. For example: The beneficiary of a life insurance policy, is the person who receives the payment of the amount of insurance after the death of the insured...

 of the frontiersman, Colonel John Todd
John Todd (Virginia)
John Todd was a frontier military officer during the American Revolutionary War and the first administrator of the Illinois County of the U.S...

 and the daughter of Irvine. John Todd was the brother of Levi Todd
Levi Todd
Levi Todd was an 18th century American pioneer who, with his brothers John and Robert Todd, helped found present-day Lexington, Kentucky and were leading prominent landowners and statesmen in the state of Kentucky prior to its admission into the United States in 1792.He was also the grandfather of...

, the grandfather of Mary Todd Lincoln
Mary Todd Lincoln
Mary Ann Lincoln was the wife of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, and was First Lady of the United States from 1861 to 1865.-Life before the White House:...

. It was publicly exposed by Robert Breckinridge
Robert Jefferson Breckinridge
Robert Jefferson Breckinridge was a politician and Presbyterian minister. He was a member of the Breckinridge family of Kentucky, the son of Senator John Breckinridge....

 that John Russell (Mary Owen Todd Russell's son from her previous marriage with James Russell) engaged in a relationship with Crawford during a summer visit with his grandmother and thereby fathered Alfred. Alfred's father being white and his mother being an octoroon gave him his obvious mixed-race appearance. After Wickliffe emancipated Alfred, his mother, Lucy, and her four children they left for Liberia
Liberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...

. Alfred was fifteen years old when he and his family left on the brig Ajax to go to Liberia, West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...

 with many of the first frontiersman of the country. They arrived in Liberia on July 11, 1833.

Political career

In 1881 when Anthony Gardiner won the presidency for a third term, Russell also won Vice-President. When health issues made Gardiner resign three years later, Russell became president.

Territorial conflict with the British

The conflict with the British, which had reached a crisis during the Gardiner
Anthony W. Gardiner
Anthony William Gardner served as the ninth President of Liberia from 1878 until 1883. He was the first of a series of True Whig presidents who held power uninterruptedly until 1980....

 administration, was still unsolved. Two months after Russell took office, in March 1883, the British Government annexed the Gallinas territory west of the Mano River
Mano River
The Mano River is a river in west Africa, it originates in the Guinea Highlands in Liberia and forms part of the Liberia – Sierra Leone border....

 and formally incorporated it into Sierra Leone. Whenever the British and French seemed intent on enlarging at Liberia's expense the neighboring territories they already controlled, periodic appearances by U.S. warships helped discourage encroachment, even though successive American administrations rejected appeals from Monrovia for more forceful support. Russell, along with Gardiner, has been notably blamed for Liberia's losing much of its territory to the British and most likely because of this Russell was not elected to a second term.

Economy

In the decades after 1868, escalating economic difficulties weakened the state's dominance over the coastal indigenous population. Conditions worsened, the cost of imports was far greater than the income generated by exports of coffee, rice, palm oil, sugar cane, and timber. Liberia tried desperately to modernize its largely agricultural economy.

Death and legacy

Russell died three months after he left office on April 4, 1884.

Russell is survived by many descendants
Kinship
Kinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through either biological, cultural, or historical descent. And descent groups, lineages, etc. are treated in their own subsections....

 in Liberia, West Africa and also some U.S. states like Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

, Kentucky, and South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

.

Further reading

  • Liebenow, J. Gus, Liberia: the Quest for Democracy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987.
  • see further: History of Liberia, further reading

External links

  • see History of Liberia, external links
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