Author: Patrick

Founded in 1832, Edina township lies on an island of some 83 acres that is about a mile long and a quarter mile wide. It sits about half a mile from the St. John’s River mouth and toward its northern bank. During the era of slave trading,  it was known as “Factory Island” based on the presence there of a “factory” or warehouse where goods were traded for enslaved Africans.

Edina was established by 38 repatriates who set out from Monrovia to settle land recently acquired by the colonial authorities. The town was named to honor the colonizationists of Edinburgh, Scotland, who funded the land purchase.

Footnote: E. Skinner, “Liberia: Extracts of a letter,” African Repository, June 1836, p. 169; J. W. Lugenbeel, “Sketches of Liberia – No. 2,” African Repository, July 1850, p. 207; Cassell, 1970, p. 103; Brown, p. 87-88, 95, n. 21; also d’Amico, 1977, pp. 121-122.

When the representatives of the Liberian colonial government began visiting in the 1820s, the local ruler with authority in the area was Bob Gray. With his permission, the colony established a trading post on the island.

The government’s trading post or “factory”  was completed by Jan. 28, 1827. Assigned to manage the warehouse was “Mr. Harris,” who lived there with his family.

Footnote: J. Ashmun, “Accessions of territory – and new establishments connected with the colony, African Repository, May 1826, p. 93.

In a letter to the American Colonization Society, Colonial Governor Jehudi Ashmun described the island in rhapsodic terms:

“Embosomed in a majestic and navigable river – and approaching within two miles of its mouth – this river, of easy and safe entrance for vessels of 90 to 100 tons – abounding with fish, and having its course through a fertile and delicious, and, I am obliged to add, salubrious country – rising a few feet only over a narrow sandy beach, which skirts its margin on every side – possessing a rich and mellow soil – fanned sixteen hours in every twenty-four, even in the dry season, by a sea-breeze, tempered and sweetened in its passage up the river by the verdure which crowns its banks – nothing in the original, simple dress of nature, I repeat it, can be imagined more delightful – and no residence in this country more eligible.”

Footnote: J. Ashmun, “Accessions of territory – and new establishments connected with the colony, African Repository, May 1826, p. 93.

When ACS agent Elliott Skinner first visited the island in early 1835, he saw the ruins of “an ancient wharf,” which evoked images of the previously thriving local slave trade.

“I fancied before me a store of goods, filled with rum and other things to excite war and purchase human flesh; the barricade, the clinking chain by which human beings are fastened to each other by the neck, were present before me. I heard or fancied I heard the groan of the husband torn forever from his wife and family, and that of the despairing wife and mother was a reality to my imagination; every degree of family connexion torn asunder by the monster slave trade, I fancied before me the blood-stained soil of Africa and the blazing native village.

Footnote: E. Skinner, “Liberia: Extracts of a letter,” African Repository, June 1836, p. 169.