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| Title: | Black Christian Republicans: Delegates to the 1847 Liberian Constitutional Convention |
| Author: | Burrowes, Carl P. |
| Year: | 1989 |
| Periodical: | Liberian Studies Journal |
| Volume: | 14 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Pages: | 64-89 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Liberia |
| Subjects: | constitutions 1847 politicians biographies (form) Law, Human Rights and Violence Religion and Witchcraft Politics and Government History and Exploration |
| Abstract: | The 1847 Constitution of Liberia and the convention that produced it have received little scholarly attention, partly because of a scarcity of documentary sources, but also because it was assumed that the Constitution was written by Simon Greenleaf, a Harvard constitutional law expert. This paper provides biographical sketches of delegates to the 1847 Constitutional Convention, with attention given to both their actions and ideas. The 12 delegates constituted a diverse group when measured by standard demographic features. However, they evidenced considerable uniformity on certain critical cultural values: eight of the 12 held high church offices, all were literate, and several were full-time educators. They were committed to the creation of a black republic in which landownership would be reserved for people of African descent. In short, they were Christian republicans with a nationalism rooted in race consciousness, collectively embodying the world view of colonial Liberians. The paper shows that the delegates, as suggested by R.T. Brown (In: Liberian Studies Journal, vol. 9, no. 2 (1980/81), p. 51-60) possessed the education and the other wherewithal to write the Constitution. App., bibliogr., notes, ref. |