Crozierville is a town in

Montserrado County Montserrado County is a county in the northwestern portion of the West African nation of Liberia containing its national capital, Monrovia. One of 15 counties that comprise the first-level of administrative division in the nation, it has 17 sub p ...

Liberia Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...

, along the

Saint Paul River The Saint Paul River is a river of western Africa. Its headwaters are in southeastern Guinea. Its upper portion in Guinea is known as the Diani River or Niandi River, and forms part of the boundary between Guinea and Liberia. It is known local ...

. Crozierville is notable for being one of the few

Americo-Liberian Americo-Liberian people (also known as Congo people or Congau people),Cooper, Helene, ''The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood'' (United States: Simon and Schuster, 2008), p. 6 are a Liberian ethnic group of African Am ...

settlements founded by immigrants from the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

, instead of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The town is located 15 miles (24 km) from

Monrovia Monrovia () is the administrative capital city, capital and largest city of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast and as of the 2022 census had 1,761,032 residents, home to 33.5% of Liber ...

, the capital city of Liberia.

History

Crozierville was settled by immigrants from

Barbados Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...

. The immigration was the result of a visit by a Liberian delegation to Barbados in the 1860s, where they invited Barbadians and others from the Caribbean to emigrate to Liberia. In 1864, Joseph S. Attwell, who was born in Barbados, came to the United States to collect funds to assist his compatriots in emigrating to Liberia. He collected about US$20,000, (~$ in ) and was instrumental in the founding of the settlement of Crozerville. On April 6, 1865, the

American Colonization Society The American Colonization Society (ACS), initially the Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America, was an American organization founded in 1816 by Robert Finley to encourage and support the repatriation of freeborn peop ...

chartered the ship “Cora”, with 346 Barbadian emigrants for Liberia, where they arrived in Monrovia on May 10, 1865. Many of the emigrants came from the Parish of Christ Church in southern Barbados. Some of the Barbadians later moved from Monrovia to the neighboring country of

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

, while others founded the Crozerville settlement. The town was named after

John Price Crozer John Price Crozer (January 13, 1793 – March 11, 1866) was an American textile manufacturer, banker, president of the board of directors of the American Baptist Publication Society, and philanthropist from Pennsylvania. His mills produced cloth ...

and Samuel A. Crozer, brothers and American Colonization Society benefactors from

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

who were influential in organizing the Barbadian emigration project. Crozerville residents were known as skilled mechanics and farmers (especially in producing arrowroot and ginger), and some residents and their descendants quickly became part of Liberia's Americo-Liberian elite. The town was the birthplace of Albert Porte, political critic of Barbadian ancestry who was also the editor of the ''Crozerville Observer''. In 1946, Porte became the first Liberian journalist to be imprisoned by President

William Tubman William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman (29 November 1895 – 23 July 1971) was a Liberian politician. He was the 19th president of Liberia and the longest-serving president in the country's history, serving from his election in 1944 until his dea ...

.Gabriel I.H. Williams, ''Liberia: The Heart of Darkness'', 2002, pg. 325
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References

{{Reflist Populated places in Liberia History of the Colony of Barbados Montserrado County Americo-Liberian people