New Georgia is a township in
Montserrado CountyMontserrado County is a county in the northwestern portion of the West African nation of Liberia. One of 15 counties that comprise the first-level of administrative division in the nation, it has four districts. Bensonville serves as the capital with the area of the county measuring , the smallest...
,
LiberiaLiberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
that was first settled by Africans who had been taken from
slave shipSlave ships were large cargo ships specially converted for the purpose of transporting slaves, especially newly purchased African slaves to Americas....
s seized or wrecked near the United States and then sent to Liberia after several years had passed.
In July 1827 a ship named
Norfolk carried 131, 143 or 144 Africans to Liberia from the United States, of whom 78 were adult women and another eleven or twelve were under ten years of age. One hundred twenty of those people had been found on the slave ship
Antelope when it was seized off the coast of Florida in 1820. They had been held in Georgia for seven years waiting for the courts to settle their fate. After being kept under supervision in
MonroviaMonrovia is the capital city of the West African nation of Liberia. Located on the Atlantic Coast at Cape Mesurado, it lies geographically within Montserrado County, but is administered separately...
for a while, the people from the
Antelope were settled along Stockton Creek on
Bushrod IslandBushrod Island is an island near Monrovia, Liberia surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the Saint Paul River and the Mesurado River. It contains the Freeport of Monrovia, the major national port of Liberia and a variety of businesses. It also contains numerous residential areas and government buildings...
about four miles up the
Mesurado RiverMesurado River is a river of Liberia. It flows through the capital of Monrovia and is crossed by the People’s Bridge, built in the 1970s..-External links:*...
from Monrovia. The settlement was named New Georgia after their home of the prior seven years. Although "recaptured" Africans (people taken from slave ships by
U.S. NavyThe United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
anti-slave trade patrol ships) had been brought to Liberia previously, none were still there when the people from the
Antelope arrived. Most, if not all, of the people found on the
Antelope in 1820 and taken to Liberia in 1827 had originally been loaded on slave ships at
CabindaCabinda may refer to:*Cabinda Province, an exclave and Province of Angola*Cabinda , the administrative capital of Cabinda Province*Republic of Cabinda, self-proclaimed government which claims sovereignty over Cabinda...
, and were probably
CongosThe Bakongo or the Kongo people , also sometimes referred to as Kongolese or Congolese, is a Bantu ethnic group which lives along the Atlantic coast of Africa from Pointe-Noire to Luanda, Angola...
.
In March 1830 92 African men who had survived the 1827 wreck of the slave ship
GuerreroGuerrero was a Spanish slave ship which wrecked in 1827 on a reef near the Florida Keys with 561 Africans aboard. Forty-one of the Africans drowned in the wreck. Guerrero had been engaged in a battle with a British anti-slavery patrol ship, HMS Nimble, stationed on the northern approaches to Cuba....
near
Key LargoKey Largo is an island in the upper Florida Keys archipelago and, at long, the largest of the Keys. It is also the northernmost of the Florida Keys in Monroe County, and the northernmost of the Keys connected by U.S. Highway 1...
,
FloridaFlorida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
were brought to Liberia from the United States and settled at New Georgia. These men were mostly
IgboIgbo people, also referred to as the Ibo, Ebo, Eboans or Heebo are an ethnic group living chiefly in southeastern Nigeria. They speak Igbo, which includes various Igboid languages and dialects; today, a majority of them speak English alongside Igbo as a result of British colonialism...
s and "Persas" or "Pessas". About 150 people who had been freed from coastal slaving stations by Americo-Liberians also settled in New Georgia.
In the 1830s New Georgia consisted of separate communities of Congos and Igbos separated by a small rivulet, with a total of about 300 people. The "recaptured" Africans at New Georgia had inter-married between the groups and many of the men married women from local tribes. There was a schoolhouse for the children, and the town was described as being pleasing in appearance. Houses in New Georgia were surrounded by vegetable and fruit gardens and the town was surrounded by fields where
maizeMaize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
, rice,
cassavaCassava , also called yuca or manioc, a woody shrub of the Euphorbiaceae native to South America, is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrates...
and vegetables were grown. New Georgia was an important supplier to the market in Monrovia. The men of the town also sawed lumber and made shingles. The people of New Georgia prospered, and were described as "decidedly the most contented and independent of any in the colony." New Georgia is listed as one of the settlements making up the Commonwealth of Liberia in the 1839 Constitution. In 1878 a traveler reported about 500 people living in New Georgia.
As of 2009 a bridge connecting New Georgia with Barnersville was under construction. The new bridge will replace one that was built in 1992 for military purposes by
peacekeepersPeacekeeping is an activity that aims to create the conditions for lasting peace. It is distinguished from both peacebuilding and peacemaking....
from the
Economic Community of West African States Monitoring GroupThe Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group, or ECOMOG, was a West African multilateral armed force established by the Economic Community of West African States . ECOMOG was a formal arrangement for separate armies to work together...
. The badly deteriorated bridge had been closed to vehicle traffic for several years before it collapsed in 2009. Also as of 2009 a new elementary school operated by the
United Methodist ChurchThe United Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination which is both mainline Protestant and evangelical. Founded in 1968 by the union of The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church, the UMC traces its roots back to the revival movement of John and Charles Wesley...
was under construction in New Georgia.
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