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 its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean to its south and southwest. It ...

, 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 loca ...

. Crozierville is notable for being one of the few

Americo-Liberian Americo-Liberian people or Congo people or Congau people in Liberian English,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 Afric ...

settlements founded by immigrants from the Caribbean, instead of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

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

Monrovia Monrovia () is the capital city of the West African country of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic coast and as of the 2008 census had 1,010,970 residents, home to 29% of Liberia’s total population. As th ...

, the capital city of Liberia.

History

Crozierville was settled by immigrants from

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate ...

. 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 until 1837, was an American organization founded in 1816 by Robert Finley to encourage and support the migration of freebo ...

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 by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

, 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, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

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 Albert Porte (19 January 1906 – 1986) was an Americo-Liberian political journalist and dissident who was the editor of the ''Crozerville Observer''. In 1946, he became the first Liberian journalist to be imprisoned by President William Tubman. T ...

, 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 death ...

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

References

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