"If I know my own heart, I can truly say, that I have not a
selfish wish in placing myself under the patronage of the American
Colonization] Society; usefulness in my day and generation, is what
I principally court."
"Sensible then, as all are of the disadvantages under which we
at present labour, can any consider it a mark of folly, for us to
cast our eyes upon some other portion of the globe where all these
inconveniences are removed where the Man of Colour freed from the
fetters and prejudice, and degradation, under which he labours in
this land, may walk forth in all the majesty of his creation--a new
born creature--a "Free Man" "
--John Brown Russwurm, 1829.
John Brown Russwurm (1799-1851) is almost completely missing
from the annals of the Pan-African movement, despite the pioneering
role he played as an educator, abolitionist, editor, government
official, emigrationist and colonizationist. Russwurm's life is one
of "firsts" first African American graduate of Maine's Bowdoin
College; co-founder of "Freedom's Journal," America's first
newspaper to be owned, operated, and edited by African Americans;
and, following his emigration to Africa, first black governor of
the Maryland section of Liberia. Despite his accomplishments,
Russwurm struggled internally with the perennial Pan-Africanist
dilemma of whether to go to Africa or stay and fight in the United
States, and his ordeal was the first of its kind to be experienced
and resolved before the public eye.
With this slim, accessible biography of Russwurm, Winston James
makes a major contribution to the history of black uplift and
protest in the Early American Republic and the larger Pan-African
world. James supplements the biography with a carefully edited and
annotated selection of Russwurm's writings, which vividly
demonstrate the trajectory of his political thinking and
contribution to Pan-Africanist thought and highlight the challenges
confronting the peoples of the African Diaspora. Though enormously
rich and powerfully analytical, Russwurm's writings have never been
previously anthologized.
The Struggles of John Brown Russwurm is a unique and
unparalleled reflection on the Early American Republic, the African
Diaspora and the wider history of the times. An unblinking observer
of and commentator on the condition of African Americans as well as
a courageous fighter against white supremacy and for black
emancipation, Russwurm's life and writings provide a distinct and
articulate voice on race that is as relevant to the present as it
was to his own lifetime.
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