Clay-Ashland

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Clay-Ashland
Township
Clay-Ashland
Location in Liberia
Coordinates: 6°25′21″N 10°43′29″W / 6.42250°N 10.72472°W / 6.42250; -10.72472Coordinates: 6°25′21″N 10°43′29″W / 6.42250°N 10.72472°W / 6.42250; -10.72472
Country Liberia
County Montserrado County
District St. Paul River
Established 1846
Time zone GMT (UTC+0)

Clay-Ashland is a township[1] located 10 miles (16 km) from the capital city of Monrovia in Liberia.[2] The town is in the St. Paul River District of Montserrado County.[3] It is named after Henry Clay — a slaveowner and American Colonization Society co-founder who favored gradual emancipation — and his estate Ashland in Lexington, Kentucky.[4]

Established in 1846, Clay-Ashland was part of a colony called Kentucky In Africa,[4] because it was settled by African-American immigrants primarily from the U.S. state of Kentucky under the auspices of the American Colonization Society.

History

A Kentucky state affiliate of the ACS was formed in 1828, and members raised money to transport Kentucky blacks — freeborn volunteers as well as slaves set free on the stipulation that they leave the United States — to Africa.[4] The Kentucky society bought a 40-square-mile (100 km2) site along the Saint Paul River and named it Kentucky in Africa.[4] Clay-Ashland was the colony's main town.[4]

Notable residents have included William D. Coleman, the 13th President of Liberia, whose family settled in Clay-Ashland after immigrating from Fayette County, Kentucky, United States when he was a boy.[5] Moses Ricks, a successful farmer and Baptist missionary who founded the still-running Ricks Institute in 1887 to provide a Christian education to indigenous youth in Liberia, also grew up in the town.[6] Alfred F. Russell, the 9th President of Liberia, also resided in Clay-Ashland.[7]

The True Whig Party, which dominated Liberian politics for more than a century, was founded in Clay-Ashland in 1869.[8][9]

References

  1. ↑ Clay-Ashland Residents Dance for School", Daily Observer (Liberia), 11 December, 2007
  2. ↑ Kenneth B. Noble, "Leader Of Liberia Refusing To Quit", New York Times, June 7, 1990
  3. ↑ "Liberia: Montserrado County". Handbook of Place Codes. Humanitarian Information Centre. 31 December 2005. Retrieved 2008-12-09. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 KET, Program 1106, "Kentucky And Liberia"
  5. ↑ Liberia Past And Present, "President William David Coleman 1896 – 1900"
  6. ↑ Power and Press Freedom in Liberia, 1830-1970
  7. ↑ Bluegrass Community & Technical College, "A Letter from Liberia: Reverend Alfred F. Russell to Robert Wickliffe in Lexington, Kentucky", July 3, 1855
  8. ↑ Kevin Shillington, Encyclopedia of African History, 2005
  9. ↑ Donald A. Ranard, "Liberians: An Introduction to their History and Culture", Center for Applied Linguistics, April 2005
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