This homeschool lesson about Liberia and its tenth president
(who was from Kentucky) can be adapted for use by students in the fourth grade
and above. It includes map skills, computer and internet skills, math, history
and writing. Use some or all of the suggestions. The activities can be spread
over several lessons.
Introduce the lesson with a brief biography of Alfred Francis Russell
(bill hours to history)
 |
| From Wikipedia: Alfred Francis Russell |
Alfred Francis Russell was born in Lexington, Kentucky, in
1817 where he and his mother were slaves. His father, a white man, was the son
of Russell’s owner. When Russell was sixteen, in 1833, his mistress (who was
his grandmother) emancipated him and paid for him to join 200 other freed
slaves to move to Liberia, Africa. There, he became a Methodist minister and
later, an Episcopalian priest. He farmed sugarcane and coffee. He became active
in politics, was elected senator and then vice president of the country. When
the elected president resigned, Russell became the tenth president of Liberia.
He served for one year.
Pose some questions to evaluate how much knowledge the students already
have
Where is Liberia?
Guess how far you think it is from Lexington, Kentucky is Liberia and, in 1833,
how would someone get there.
In the United States, the president must have been born
here. Russell was not born in Liberia yet he became its president. How was that
possible?
Show where Liberia is on the globe and follow up by assigning some
activities using maps (bill hours to geography or map skills)
Download and print an outline map of Africa with the names
of today’s countries. A good one is located at http://www.georgethegeographer.co.uk/Base_maps/PDFs/Africa_b&w_named.pdf.
Direct the students to find Liberia and to color it in. Have them label the Atlantic
Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Ask the students to describe the location of
Liberia in terms of north, east, west and south.
Download and print an outline map of the world such as this
one: http://www.georgethegeographer.co.uk/Base_maps/PDFs/World_b&w_unnamed.pdf
. Instruct the students to find Africa
and to put an X at the approximate location of Liberia. Ask the students to
locate North America. Then ask them if North America is east or west of Africa.
Direct them to label the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean and the Mediterranean
Sea. Then tell them to put an X at the approximate location of Kentucky.
Use the internet to research some facts (bill hours to computer
science, history or geography)
Tell the students that they must use the internet to find
the capital of Liberia (Monrovia).
Then see if they can find out who it is named to honor (President James
Monroe). Find out when Liberia became a nation. Does this correlate with James
Monroe’s time as the president of the United States?
Talk about what questions would be good to put into a Google
Search to find the distance from Lexington, Kentucky to Monrovia, Liberia (5,061 miles).
Discuss how travel has changed since 1833 (bill hours to history,
technology or math)
Calculate how many years it has been since Alfred Russell
traveled from Lexington to Liberia? (Ask students to set up and solve the math
problem that will answer this question: 2021 – 1833 = X ).
Ask how we would travel to Liberia from Lexington today and
how much it will cost? Use the internet to figure out what airlines fly this route as well as the
cost of the flights.
Tell the students that Alfred Russell took the brig, Ajax,
to Liberia in 1833. This means he had to first travel to an ocean port like New
Orleans, New York or Philadelphia using river boats, horses and wagons because
this was before the railroad had been built. A simple explanation of what a
brig looked like can be found online here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brig
.
Discuss why Liberia was formed (bill hours to history or
political science)
Explain that two African nations, Sierra Leone and Liberia,
were created as places for former American slaves to be resettled. Sierra Leone belonged to England and was used to relocate American slaves which had fought with the British in the American Revolutionary War. Liberia was formed by the United States as a place where emancipated American slaves could move. So, the first Liberian
citizens were emancipated American slaves. This is how Alfred Russell could
become the president of Liberia. Use this website to learn more about Alfred
Russell: http://liberiainfo.co/prd/presidents/alfred-f-russell/
.
Have the students show what they have learned (bill hours to writing,
art or communications)
Assign the students to use what they have learned to respond
to the following question by writing an essay, drawing a comic strip or preparing
a presentation. Imagine that you are a sixteen year-old enslaved person living
in Kentucky in 1833. Suppose that you were offered your freedom if you agreed
to travel across the ocean to build a new home in a new country and that you
would probably never be able to return to Kentucky where you have relatives and
friends, what would you do and why?
By Lesley Barker PhD ©2021
