On Afric's Shore: A History of Maryland in Liberia, 1834-1857 [Hardcover]

Richard L. Hall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2, 2003

The enthralling story of the eleven hundred brave souls who chose to emigrate back to the west coast of Africa under the auspices of the Maryland Colonization Society. In spite of terrible hardships, the colonists created a settlement that exists to this day.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Splendid... Hall has constructed not only the community’s great events—its trials, elections, and wars—but also the thoughts and hopes of countless people striving to create a new society.

(New York Review of Books 2006)

About the Author

Richard L. Hall began work on this volume in 1983 while studying at Johns Hopkins University. Under the auspices of a grant awarded by the State of Maryland, he transcribed the entire African correspondence of the Maryland State Colonization Society. In 1985–86 he was a fellow in the Writing Seminars at Hopkins.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 500 pages
• Publisher: The Maryland Historical Society (December 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0938420860
• ISBN-13: 978-0938420866
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,134,396 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #87 in Books > History > Africa > Liberia

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Account of a Forgotten Chapter in History, May 15, 2004

By 

Jonathan Weisman (Brooklyn, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: On Afric's Shore: A History of Maryland in Liberia, 1834-1857 (Hardcover)

With much of the historiography of Liberia concentrating on the settlement planted at Monrovia by the American Colonization Society in 1822 and which proclaimed its independence in 1847, the colony independently founded by the Maryland State Colonization Society in 1831 near Cape Palmas and not incorporated into Liberia until 1857 is all but forgotten. Richard Hall now fills this lacuna with his excellent account of the "Colony of Maryland in Africa," later the "State of Maryland in Africa," which was the home some of the oldest educational institutions in the West African nation and which held a disportionate influence on its subsequent development. The reader can pick up where the author leaves off by referring to the important political histories written by Dr. Amos Sawyer (The Emergence of Autocracy in Liberia, 1992) and, more recently, by Dr. John Peter Pham (Liberia: Portrait of a Failed State, 2004).