Sale 2517 - Printed & Manuscript Americana, September 26, 2019

2 c   (AFRICAN AMERICANS.) Johnson, Henry W. Letter written as a prominent emigrant to Liberia. Autograph Letter Signed to the president and board of the New Jersey Colonization Society. 5 pages, 12 1 / 2 x 7 3 / 4 inches, on 2 sheets with brief docketing on final blank; folds, minimal foxing. Monrovia, Liberia, 5 February 1866 [6,000/9,000] Henry W. Johnson, Jr. (circa 1822-1884) was an African American from Canandaigua, NY who rose in his working life from barber to lawyer. In June 1865, discouraged by his prospects in America, he emigrated to Liberia with the help of the New Jersey Colonization Society. This letter was sent as a report back to his sponsors. “All that has transpired since I left America, and all I have witnessed since my arrival here, have only confirmed me in the belief that Africa is the best home for the oppressed Black men of America! While in America, I was constantly weighed down with the thought that I was constantly in the presence of those who considered me inferior to them, for no other reason than because I wear the dark skin given me by my creator. . . . I have felt as free as the air we breathe, and the ponderous weight of human bondage has rolled off from my soul. My citizenship is acknowledged, my rights respected, my wrongs redressed, and my manhood fully recognized! This is what Liberia will do for every black man. . . . How lamentable it is, that so many thousands of intelligent colored men in America, possessing fine tallents and ample means, will continue to hug their chains, kiss the rod that smites them, finally die in despair . . . when they can obtain all they desire within the limits of the Republic of Liberia!” He also condescendingly describes the pre-colonization inhabitants of Liberia as “ignorant, degraded, superstitious, wild, and hostile tribes of natives” who have since been improved by “the seeds of a Christian civilization.” 2