Joseph Jenkins Roberts

Who is Joseph Jenkins Roberts?

Joseph Jenkins Roberts was born in Norfolk, Virginia, and emigrated as a free man of color to the Liberia settlement on the West African coast in 1829 under the American Colonization Society. He built a successful mercantile trading business in Monrovia and rose through the leadership of the settler community, becoming governor of the Commonwealth of Liberia in 1841, the first person of African descent to hold that office. When Liberia declared independence on 26 July 1847, Roberts was elected its first President, serving from 1848 to 1856, and he later returned to office for a seventh term from 1872 to 1876. During his presidencies he worked to secure international recognition of Liberia's sovereignty from European powers and the United States, expanded the young republic's coastal boundaries, and pursued efforts to bring indigenous communities into the political life of the new state. In 1862 he co-founded Liberia College in Monrovia, the country's first institution of higher education, and served as its first president until his death in 1876. He remains remembered as the founding father of the Liberian republic.

Sources: BlackPast.org, "Joseph Jenkins Roberts (1809-1876)" · Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Joseph Jenkins Roberts" · Library of Congress, "History of Liberia: A Time Line"