Category: Bexley

Bexley sits about six miles from the mouth of the St. John’s River on the northern bank. It was established in 1838 through the efforts of one man, Lewis Sheridan, who was frustrated over the limit imposed by the colonial government on the amount of public land granted each repatriate.

Before emigrating, Sheridan (1793-1843) had served as North Carolina-agent for the Freedom’s Journal, the first black newspaper in the United States. He arrived in Liberia in 1838, at age 50, with his family of five, all emancipated.

Footnote: Gatewood, 1983; J. W. Lugenbeel, “Sketches of Liberia – No. 2,” African Repository, July 1850, p. 207.

Having acquired $15,000 to $20,000 from trading in his native North Carolina, Sheridan arrived in Liberia with twenty-five thousand board feet of lumber and thirty-five tons of merchandise to sell.

When the government refused him the acreage he desired, Sheridan acquired 570 acres in the interior of Bassa, and, after clearing some of it, convinced some fellow repatriates to join him. By 1843, Bexley had 135 residents with 1,082 acres planted. Sheridan alone had 45 acres under cultivation with 6,000 coffee trees, yams, potatoes and cassava.

Footnote: Berlin, 1974, p. 169; Cassell, 1970, p. 112; Gatewood, 1983; Shick, 1971a, p. 86.

When a census was taken in 1843, 50 residents identified their occupations. Twenty-two worked in agriculture, one held appointive office, one was an artisan, one merchant, one professional, 13 semiskilled, and 111 unskilled. Fifty-nine residents were members of two local churches. Thirty-six were Baptists and 23 Methodists.

When Liberia declared its independence in 1847, the country contained 11 towns. Bexley was one of them.

Footnote: U. S., Congress, Senate, U. S. Navy Department, tables showing the number of emigrants and recaptured Africans sent to the colony of Liberia by the government of the United States … together with a census of the colony and a report of its commerce, &c. September, 1843: Senate Document No. 150, 28th Cong., 2n sess., 1845.

In 1850, Bexley stretched about four miles along the river. It was divided between Upper and Lower Bexley. Located here were the headquarters of both the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions and the Southern Baptist Mission. Several residents were successfully growing export crops.

In 1893, the national legislature granted $1,150 to Bexley, Hartford and Fortsville in Bassa County, to build bridges and throw up causeways.

Footnote: J. W. Lugenbeel, “Sketches of Liberia – No. 2,” African Repository, July 1850, p. 207; Acts of the Liberian Legislature, 1893, p. 9.