shared values is not fikefy to endure without some element of coercion. On the other hand, if there is not much centralized power, a society must try to avoid issues which vt'ill wreck its fragife coalition.'"* fn proposition ff, Stevens presented the forms of restrictions, not their quantity, as being determinant. Following Bishop,'^ the meaning of "developed" was largely cast in economic terms. Stevens not only suggested that countries with per capita incomes of between $600 and $1,000 would be less free than those with more than $1,000 per capita, he also conflated press freedom with electoral democracy. As with much of masscommunicat:ionsstudies from the three decades after Worfd War II, the press-freedom theories developed by Stevens and other scholars are undergirded by a faith in modernity and American pluralism that remain to be systematically tested in the context of nonWestern societies.*' By examining conditions in a Third World country during thenineteenthcentury, this study fulfills Stevens'call for "more comparative (historical) studies, which cross time and/or national boundaries."'' fn the context of colonial Liberia, Stevens' propositions were found to have weak predictive power due largely to imprecise definitions of "heterogeneity" and "development." Given the role of Americans in the establishment of Liberia, it is not surprising that several research centers in the United States house significant primary materials on the country, especially during its colonial era." Sources were selected on the basis of availability, relevance, and reliability. Despite an attempt at comprehensiveness, the composite perspective presented here was drawn mainly from journalists and officials, the majority of whom were Westernized, urban, artisan men. As a result, it largely excludes the perspectives of repatriate women and the few people of indigenous descent who resided in the colony. Of the serials that survive from that period, five provided extensive coverage of the Liberian colony and, therefore, were exhaustively examined: the African Repository (Washington, D.C.), Africa's Luminary (Monrovia, Liberia), the American Colonizalion Society Annual Report (Washington, D,C.), the Liberia Herald (Monrovia, Liberia), and the Maryland Colonization loiirnal (Baltimore, Maryland).'' The two papers published in Liberia, the Liiminar\j and Herald, were selected to represent opposition and progovernment perspectives respectively. Also consulted were letters from repatriates to their relatives, friends, and former masters in the United States,'" as well as secondary material on the colonization movement," religious missions in the colony,'-^ and the Liberian press.^^ The development of the Liberian press is considered in A broader context by Ainslie,'* one of the earliest historians of the African media - and still one of the best, if judged by historical depth as well as analytical framework. However, press freedom in particular has been the subject of few systematic studies in the Liberian context.'^ From the various sources, two crises in government-press relations were identified that could have been the basis for restrictions on the press: a 1835 courtroom riot that led the governor to declare the colonists to be in insurrection and, more important, 1840 confrontations between the powerful Methodist Church and the government in two lawsuits and in elections. After examining those crises, this paper presents the implications of the Liberian case for press-freedom theory, with particular attention given to the variables mentioned by Stevens (e.g., values, religious beliefs, and economic indices).
During the nineteenth century, some 19,000 blacks emigrated to The Colotty Liberia under the auspices of the American Colonization Society (ACS),'*' an and the association of powerful and influential whites committed to removing free blacks from the United States as a means of improving the living standards ^'t^=>=' of this group, while also lessening racial tensions in the United States. As a result, an improbable alliance of black repatriates and white deportationists was forged, around the goal of promoting Christianity, "civilization," and legitimate commerce in Africa.''' Liberia's origin - as an outgrowth of racial tensions in the United States that stemmed in turn from the trans-Atlantic slave trade - illustrates the reality of global interdependence even in the early nineteenth century. The first group of repatriated African-Americans to settle in Liberia landed on 28 April 1822, at Cape Mesurado, the site of what would become the seaport of Monrovia. Already implanted in this territory were speakers of three major languages: Mel, Kwa, and Mande.'" During the period under consideration, Liberia encompassed nine scattered coastal towns that were effectively controlled by the Liberian state.'^ By 1843, the year a thorough census was undertaken by the U.S. Navy,^" the colony was home to 2,390 people. Only 27 percent were locally born, including some indigenous persons who had adopted Liberian ways. Three denominations maintained buildings and officially ordained clergy: the Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians.^' Given mission support from abroad, the Methodist church cast the longest shadow, especially over the small outlying towns of the colony, claiming 906 of the colony's 1,484 congregants and supporting eleven of its fourteen schools. In keeping with the success of the Baptist denomination among Southern blacks, who made up the majority in this society, that church had 554 members. Despite massive ideological and financial support given by Presbyterians to the African colonization cause, their church maintained a wisp of a presence. A cosmetic appearance of homogeneity notwithstanding, the colony was permeated by three parallel, mutually reinforcing social tensions: One muted fight involved the colony's formal white authorities on the one hand and the emerging black leadership on the other, evident in an "insurrection" in 1835. Another pitted the Methodist mission authorities and their ecclesiastically oriented supporters against the colonial officials and their leading Baptist allies, who were more secular in world view and employment. A third cleavage pitted early arrivals (mainly free-born blacks from the Upper South) against later immigrants (mostly manumitted slaves from the Deep South). Not surprisingly, the colony's two newspapers, which existed as appendages of other organizations - the Liberia Herald of the colonial government and Africa's Luminary of the Methodist mission, helped to reinforce these polarities. The colony's first newspaper, the Liberia Herald, was launched in February 1830 by John Brown Russwurm, who had distinguished himself as one of the first blacks to graduate from college in the United States, at a time when higher education was a rarity, even for white men. While still in his twenties, he helped found Freedom's Journal, the first African-American newspaper.--^ As colonial secretary, Russwurm served under several white ACS agents, which placed him in an awkward intermediate position between the increasingly assertive black repatriates and the agents whom he described as filled with "fanaticism, bigotry, and ignorance." This mediatory position is one for which he was fitted by parentage and childhood experiPRESSFKEDOMINIJBESIA,1830TO1847: THE IMPACT OF HTat.OGEN[nyA>iDMoD[Jwrry 333
ences. Russwurm was bom free in Port Antonio, Jamaica, to a black Jamaican woman and a well-to-do white American merchant and owner of a plantation with fifty-four slaves. In a move that was unusual for that period, Russwurm's father acknowledged his paternity, giving his first-born, John, his name and the best available education. Having spent his childhood in his mother's Jamaica home, he would pass his preadolescent years attending school in Quebec, Canada, then a center of abolitionism.-^'' Russwurm's political perch was made precarious by his occupation of several conflicting offices - the elected positions of colonial secretary and Herald editor and the appointed positions of government printer and school superintendent. His inability to negotiate the pressures brought by his manysided involvements would ultimately prove his undoing, at least in the context of the Liberian colony,^'' His mediatory role was imperiled also by his lack of familiarity with the Southern culture of most immigrants, as well as his own elitism. In response apparently to local calls for greater freedom of the press, Russwurm would reject opening the pages oi the Herald toall forms of public opinion, declaring in a 6 February 1831 editorial, "the experience of past ages demonstrates most conclusively, that no country could long exist with what is vulgarly called a free press, under the guidance of unprincipled men." Conspicuously absent from the next issue of the Herald was the paper's original motto, "Freedom is the brilliant gift of heaven."^'' The unraveling of Russwurm's political career in Monrovia came while the Reverend John B. Pinney was serving as colonial agent.^'' During Pinney's tenure, an increasingly restive populace staged repeated protests againsf ACS policies and employees, culminating in a courtroom riot in which Pinney's authority was challenged and denounced. Following these protests in 1835, Russwurm published a proclamation on orders from the governor declaring the repatriates to be in a stateof insurrection. In response, an angry mob attacked the Herald office one evening and, according to Pinney, "threw down the type, rendered the Press useless by taking away certain portions of it and publicly threatened violence."^^ As this controversy swirled, Pinney returned to the United States on 10 May.^** The following year, Russwurm received word that the Maryland Colonization Society, an independent affiliate of the ACS, had appointed him governor and chief justice of the neighboring colo''} of Maryland in Africa, with a population of about 400 repatriates.-'^ Nine years after Russwurm launched the Herald, it was joined by Africa'^ Luminary, the newspaper of the Methodist Episcopal Mission to Liberia, the first issue of which appeared 15 March 1839, edited by the Reverend John Seys. Like Russwurm, the Luminary'a founder was also bom in the West Indies, the son of a slave-holding planter, but unlike his rival, Seys was white. Ordained as a Methodist preacher in 1829, he served briefly as a missionary on Tortola, British West Indies, before moving to the United States that same year. After preaching in New York for a few years, he arrived in Liberia 18 October 1834 and a year later was appointed superintendent of West Africa missions by the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States.3' Although in the first issue of the Luminary Seys professed "to be actuated by pure catholic motives in this additional auxiliary to the Mission of the M. E. Church," there were probably some, especially in the colonial government, who must have questioned his motive for launching a second paper in this small colony. Seys' pledge "to exclude, and keep forever excluded, everything of a controversial character" would be broken within
334 jouRNAiiSM & MASS COMMUNICVTON
fifteen months due to an escalating feud between the Methodist Mission and the government.
The first government-church controversy began in January 1840, when the colonial legislature passed a law requiring the ACS and missionary societies to pay duty on imported goods used in trading. This new law was one plank in a series of legal and fiscal reforms initiated by Gov. Thomas Buchanan.^- When presented a $80.30 bill for duty on imports by the Methodist church, the Reverend Seys refused to pay pending clarification on the application of duty to goods paid out for labor.^^ On 21 August Governor Buchanan wrote Seys, noting that the ACS Board had decided "unanimously that the missionaries are entitled to have the duties remitted only on goods imported for their own consumption, and not on those sold or paid out for labor."^" After consulting some "respectable citizens" of the colony - very likely Methodists members of the council, Seys informed the governor in a note six days later that he would not act on the matter until the managers of the Methodist Missionary Society in the United States had taken up the matter with tlie ACS head office in Washington, D.C.-^'^ Buchanan responded one day later, demanding immediate payment of theduty. Noting that Seys'"disrespectful" and "seditious" note had forced him "from the ground of conciliation," he explained: "1 entertain the most profound respect for the Missionary Society of the M. Church, but I cannot for a moment recognize their authority in the civil or political affairs of this government; and neither my veneration for that distinguished institution, nor my respect for the sacred office you bear, shall make me forget the solemn obligations of my duty."'*' With matters at an impasse, the collector of customs sued Seys for the unpaid duly. Since the governor also served as chief of the judiciary, Buchanan would preside when the case reached the Supreme Court on 4 September. After a jury of twelve was impaneled, and several objections by the defendant were denied, including a request that the judge recuse himself, a veritable who's who of colonial society appeared for the defense. All denied that the church had ever engaged in trading, as that term was commonly understood.-^^ In his summation for the defense, Seys urged the jurors to reject the Colonization Society's interpretation of the law. Appealing to widely held republican values, he asked, if the ACS is supreme: Why this court? why this jury? Why is the matter referred to twelve free citizens of the commonwealth of Liberia, if any other society, or body of men, could decide this case? why appeal it to a jury of Liberians? No, gentlemen; you are supreme in this case. The Col. Society may give or grant you a constitution; you may accept if; you make laws; they may revoke them; but they cannot interpret your laws, {when made and already approved of by themselves), they cannot interpret them to suit fheir own convenience. In closing, the plaintiff read the definition of "trade" from the Commercial Dictionary before throwing the case to the jury: If paying goods for trade is trading, he said, then the defendant was liable for the duty. After
PRESS FREEDOM IN L/BER/A 183aToW47:
335
deliberating from 4:30 p.m. Friday until 10 a.m. Saturday, the jurors returned to inform the court that they were divided, ten to two, and unlikely to ever reach a unanimous decision. The case for payment of duty by tbe Methodist mission was dropped when the plaintiff chose not to bring suit in another county, as was its option,'"* but the feud would continue. Six months later, tensions erupted again, this time touched off by the Herald, which was bein^ edited for five or six months by the colonial physician, James Lawrence Day." The controversy grew out of two public meetings at the church in Monrovia convened by supporters of the Reverend Seys in connection with the earlier suit, at which speakers criticized the government in harsh terms.*' In response, Gov. Buchanan accused the church hierarchy of "the propagation of sedition, and the preparation of the public mind, for a transfer of the power of government" from the ACS to Methodist officials.*' Concerned that the use of the church for political purposes might be misunderstood by Methodist supporters back in the United States, the Reverend Seys quickly published a pastoral letter enumerating the various public purposes to which the mission's building had been put, adding that, but for the Methodist properties, "there is scarcely a single decent room in all Liberia fora court, fora town meeting, or fora school."*-Of the various public uses of mission property cited in Seys' letter, his characterization of an incident at Millsburg in March 1840 would prove most controversial. Describing the militia's encampment in the Methodist church there, Seys said: The officers concerned, just as they arrived at Millsburg, demanded the key of our beautiful new church from the sexton, and without saying to the preacher in charge; may we use the church? they moved benches, which were fastened to the floor, and then rolled in barrels, heaped up ammunition and muskets, palm oil, rice, &:c., &c., until the church floor, the altar, and everywhere else was covered.*-^ The Herald entered the fray 28 April 1841 by publishing a letter to the editor that labeled as "monstrous," "unprincipiod," and "erroneous" the implication in Seys' letter that the church had been ransacked. The anonymous writer went on to ask: What could have induced this gentleman fo speak in this way? Has he forgotten that there are persons who can contradict him to his very teeth, and pronounce him a base violator of the truth? or does he imagine that he can always say and write what he thinks proper with impunity, however opposite to truth it may be, without meeting with a contradiction? No! this gentleman has been suffered to say too many things that are not facts, and it is time that some one should expose such daring untruths.''^ Also published in that issue of the Herald were sworn statements from David Moore, brigade quarter master, and his assistant, i4enry Shackelford, apparently solicited by brigade commissary John N. Lewis, both rejecting Seys' claim. Characterizing Seys' charge as "clothed in a garb directly opposite to truth," Moore retorted:
336 launNAU-iM & MASS CoMMumcmioN QuAKreRj.i
The ammunition was fixed and very neatly put up In boxes with the exception of two casks of loose powder, of 100 Ib each: therefore, there could have been no possible injury done to the house. The guns (about thirty in number) were placed in the corners of the church, with some dozen or more cutlasses, pistols and cartridge-boxes. I deny positively that while Mr. Lewis had the church in charge, there was any moving of the benches; and no injury whatever was done to the house.*^ The fire was fueled further when Moore, a Methodist, was expelled from the church for "falsehood and insubordination," with a notice of his severance published in Africa's Luminary of 1 June. On 2 August, Moore filed a libel suit against the Reverend Amos Herring, who had presided over the seven-member trial committee, setting damages at $500. When the next issue of the Luminary appeared two days later it cast no light on the case, which had resulted in an award of $25 to Moore by the jury in the Court of Common Pleas, In contrast, the Herald appeared on 14 August with a celebratory editorial, noting, "The tables are therefore now turned, and the public disapprobation no longer falls upon Mr. Moore, but his persecutors who would trample him in the mire of degradation and crime to save the character of the presiding elder [Seys]."'"' But the tables would turn yet again on 5 October when the jury's finding was reversed on appeal to the Superior Court, presided over by Judge Nathaniel Brander, a leading Methodist. The next issue of the Luminary on 15 October would devote a page to recounting the history of the trial and attacking the Herald under Day's editorial tenure, which had ended two months earlier, as filled with "abuse, misrepresentation, defamation, slander and low invective, that would have disgraced a press in the Gothic age."'*'' The libel suit, together with the suit brought by the colonial government over nonpayment of duty, underscored the abiding differences between the church and state officials. Their contrasting values and standards would become more clearly manifested in elections held in 1840, when Seys' supporters "organized as the Anti-Administration ticket," fielded candidates against incumbents, who were identified with the administration's policies. The Anti-Administration group, also known as the "Seys Party," won three out of eleven seats in the colonial legislature. This was the colony's first brush with partisan politics, since previous elections had featured candidates running on their individual reputations.'"* Political tensions would decrease dramatically in 1841, first with the recall in January of Seys to the United States in "the interest of peace," followed by the death of Gov. Buchanan on 3 September. Buchanan was eulogized by Hilary Teage, who had replaced Russwurm as editor of the Liberia Herald. Teage praised the former governor for his "inflexibility and firmness in enforcing our laws as well upon citizens as foreigners who affected fo despise and who wished to disregard them as known to you all."^' Seys, who had lost four of his children in Liberia, spent his first twelve months in the United States lecturing to raise money for his former mission. Although Russwurm was 500 mites away, his shadow loomed large over subsequent transitions in Liberia, for it is said that his success as governor of Maryland in Africa had emboldened repatriates to seek greater control over local institutions and had served to convince skeptics in the ACS to accept black self-governance in Liberia.''"
PKISS FKJ i(x>M IN LIB/KM, JS.fflTD 1847; THE IMPACT OF HETLRLXiLNLin AND MmiEHNriy 337
Despite an existing sedition la w""' and several high-pitched exchanges between government supporters and the Methodist church newspaper, the government of this apparently homogeneous and economically underdeveloped colony did not apply any restrictions against the press. The weak predictive power of Stevens' propositions is due largely to his imprecise definitions of "heterogeneity" and "development." Measured by the economic indices cited by Stevens as determinant of press freedom, the colony at first glance seemed underdeveloped, given its smalf popufation and fragile fiscal condition (Table 1). The government's budgets, for example, amounted to less than $8,000 per year. The evidence on development Is less than conclusive, however, since this population was occupationally diverse and relatively literate, two indicators normally associated with economic development. Residents were engaged in seventy-eight different occupations, from laborer through cleric. Some 412 persons, the largest single occupation category, were employed in semi-skilled jobs as apprentice, barber, caulker, seamstress, and waiter. While most farm workers tiffed their own smaf f plots, some worked for planters fike Judge Samuef Benedict, who owned seventy acres in four towns. The artisan group, 60 percent of whom were women, consisted of 126 persons empfoyeci in a diverse range of jobs, from baker and blacksmith to weaver and wheefwright. At the top of the occupational pyramid were thirty officials and professionals, including the governor, severaf missionaries, and two newspaper editors.^^ The apparent cultural homogeneity of the colony stemmed from the cruciaf support provided by the government and churches for making Christianity and "civifization" enduring features of the Liberian ethos. Regarding fanguage, all residents spoke some form of Engfish, the official language. Of the 2,390 residents, church members, whife many nonchurchgoers probably considered themselves to be Christians, since Christianity afready had become a central feature of Black life in America before emigration to Liberia began.''^ One element of cultural homogeneity that worked against government restrictions on the press was a general commitment within the colony to such republican liberties as the control by citizen-jurors over the factfinding process in criminal cases, to which Seys sought to appeal during his trial for unpaid duty in 1840. Inside the colony, a continued commitment to those ideals was manifested in internal support for Christianity, literacy, and republican liberties, which were viewed as constituent elements of a rising age of "modernity."^ The significance of literacy went beyond the number of persons who could read; it was reflected in the existence of two newspapers in this small community. That Liberia embodied a quest by repatriates for liberty was often muted in the propaganda of their white colonizationist allies and disparaged by abolitionists who dismissed emigrants as ignorant or selfish.^^ For Blacks from the South, however, colonization offered longedfor freedoms. Reflecting the tortu red choices many faced, one prospective emigrant noted that he loved the United States and its liberties "if onfy we coufd share in them; but our freedom is partial, and we have no hope that it ever will be otherwise here; therefore we had rather be gone, through we should suffer hunger and nakedness for years."^ Writing from Virginia in 1848, Peter Butfer informed the ACS that: "I wish to Goy to Liberia So as I may ... ingoy the Right of man. f have tride a great many placeis in these united state and
338
TABLE 1 Budgets of Major Institutions, 1836-7843 Institution (No.) Annual Budget in U.S. $ Methodist Church Businesses (6) Government Judiciary LegislaHve Executive fViilitia $11,791 $9,700
Source: Charles H. Huberich, The Political and Legislafiz'e History of Liberia, 2 vols. (NY: Central Book Co., 1947), 803, citing Gov. J. J. Roberts; Rafph R. Gurfey, Life ofjehudi Ashtriun, Late Colamal Agent in Liberia (n.p.: James C. Dunn, 1835; New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969 reprint), 356; Mary A. Brown, "Education and national devefopment in Liberia, 1800-1900" (Ph.D. diss., Comelf University, 1967), 129,140. I find that none of them is the home for the Cuferd man and So I . . . wish to be and Emigrant for the land of man auntsestors."^^ Regarding press restrictions in particufar. Herald editor Teage was defensive of the paper's freedom, even from controf by officiafs of the ACS, which owned the press. In a private letter to ACS secretary in 1829, he urged an officiaf rebuke of the idea that had "been recently started in the Colony that the press and the Herald are under the direction of the governor,^** that he can order or forbid publications altogether independent of the editor, that he is a kind of censor of the press." This view, Teage regarded as "so erroneous in the very nature of things, I am anxious to have corrected."^"^ When the Society's president complained in 1840 about an "offensive" article, Teage replied, "I will not regard your letter as dictatorial, but merely advisory." He went on: In common with colored men, I have certain sentiments. These sentiments, however, as I do not think their being made known could possibly do any good, but would most probably do an injury, I think it proper to repress, reserving to myself, however, the right to enjoy my sentiments, and, when justice and honor require it, to speak them out. I should be altogether unworthy of your confidence and respect, if I should at any time forget for a moment that this is my indefeasible right, or so base and meanspirited as not to claim to exercise it whenever circumstances should demand it.** While entrenched republican values, such as were evident in Teage's letters, undoubtedly played a part in preventing restrictions against the press during this period, also important was the control exerted by the Methodist Mission over important resources, including an independent newspaper, which enabled the church to function as a countervailing force against the
PRESSFREEDOMif^LIBERIA. 1830IU1847: TiiilMPAcroFHirr.ROCFUErrrANoMoDERNni' 339
government. This provided support for one aspect of Proposition I, which posited a link between political decentralization and press freedom. The impact borne by financial assets on the outcome of government-church battles was evident to such contemporary observers as Elijah Johnson, a black Methodist missionary and resident of Liberia for nearly twenty-one years, who said of Seys, "the money at his command has been a matter of much boasting with him & its [money] influence has been the means of alienating the feelings of many from the government and consequently of making adherents to Mr. Seys."^' What mattered most in measuring "homogeneity" was not diffused "values" but structured socialities. The prominence of churches in politics and journalism stemmed in part from their ability to shape relationships, from school-yard friendships to cemetery plot neighbors. The country's two newspapers were at the heart of these controversies because one was published by the Methodist Church and the other by the government. Undergirding this political fission were differences in theology and evangelical emphases. The Seys group emphasized an expanding Christianizing mission, with support from abroad, while the other faction stressed the supremacy of a secular state. The differences between the church and government were every where evident, from their roles in the polity to the names and content of their newspapers. The politics of this period, however, were driven by more than denominational loyalties. Supporters of the Anti-Administration group included at least one Baptist cleric, J.C. Ross, whife con.spicuousfy missing were Methodist ministers like Francis Burns and John Wright Roberts, both of whom would later serve as bishops of the local church. Conversely, several leading Methodists were closely identified with the administration, including A.D. Williams, Louis Sheridan, and General Joseph Jenkins Roberts, whose wedding was performed by the Reverend Seys. In fact, Sheridan and Roberts were reportedly among the many repatriate leaders who had written the ACS board to urge the removal of Seys from Liberia." These discrepant loyalties underscore a third cleavage, structured around place of origin in the United States and time of arrival in the colony, which pitted early arrivals (mainly free-born blacks from the Upper South) against later immigrants (mostly manumitted slaves from the Deep South). As early as 1833, John B. Russwurm noted that "old settlers" were "a little lifted up with the success which has crowned their efforts," but he dismissed this as "human nature" and urged new emigrants "not to expect to be placed on par with them unless they bring undoubted letters of introduction and recommendation from home."'''' Of six known leaders of the Anti-Administration group,*^ only two were from the Chesapeake region, while that area provided all but two of the eight Administration party leaders.'''' Of continued importance in this context were such primordial attachments as kinship, shared histories, and particularistic cultures, formed in the narrow confines of specific U.S. cities and states. Although the struggle between the government and church was activated by the contrasting values of their leaders, the failure of one institution to achieve a complete victory over the other resulted from the almostequal access both sides had to important resources. It would be useful to test this apparent connection between decentralization and tolerance using timeseries data from one country to see the impact on press freedom of economic and political centralization over time.
IMIKNAUSM & MASS COMMUNICMION QuAiur.Rj.Y
Drawing upon American press history, Stevens offered two propositions linking press freedom to cultural heterogeneity and economic development. Those claims were tested in this study across national and temporal boundaries, using data derived from nineteenth-century Liberia during two period.s of strain in government-press relations. At first glance, Liberia - with a population of fewer than 3,000 people - seemed relatively homogeneous and economically underdeveloped, two key criteria that Stevens had linked to restrictions of the press. Since the majority of the population spoke English and embraced Christianity, the colony appeared to be unified in reference to language and religion, two underlying variables in Proposition I. Similarly, when judged solely on the ba.sis of economic indicators, Liberia clearly was underdeveloped, given the fiscal fragility of major institutions. Despite what might have been predicted on the basis of the two propositions, the opposition press continued to enjoy wide latitude to criticize government policies and officials. A sedition law existed, but it was not used against Africa's Luminary, a major conduit of (government criticism. In fact, it was the well financed Methodist church that seized the political and legal offensive against the government. The weak predictive power of these propositions is due largely to imprecise definitions of "heterogeneity" and "development." For example, when the major cultural variable of religion was examined at a lower level of abstraction, the illusion of cultural unity dissolved. In its place emerged deep differences in the conceptualization of Christianity that divided the community into two almost equal factions. In other words, what mattered most in judging "homogeneity" was not diffused "values" but structured socialities. Equally ambiguous was the concept of "development," which is so central to Proposition II. Although the colony was economically underdeveloped, the population was occupationally diverse and committed to modern social relations - two characteristics normally associated with developed societies. In thiscase, modern social relations-including respect for press freedom and other civil liberties - preceded economic development. One aspect of Proposition 1 that received confirmation was the important role in preserving press freedom played by civil institutions that are powerful enough to provide a structural counterbalance to government. In the Liberian case, the power of the Methodist Mission (as measured by economic resources and number of adherents) probably helped to forestall the ready imposition of restrictions by the government, while also enabling the church to emerge as the de facto center of the opposition. This study highlighted the importance of cross-national testing of propositions to avoid premature generalizing on the basis of conditions that are unique to certain periods and societies. It also revealed the global character of mass communications, even in the nineteenth century. Regarding the purported link between cultural variables and press freedom in particular, it suggested the need for greater attention to be paid to institutionaiized values. Finally, it confirmed the utility of qualitative research in refining and operationalizing concepts, along with the value of historical studies for theory building, given their unique ability to uncover subtle differences and rich details.
ConcluStOH
341
NOTES 1. Frederick S. Siebert, Freedom of the Press in England J 476-1776 {Urbana, IL: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1952), 10-11. Siebert's propositions have proven to be rich in heuristic value; for example, see D.L.Shaw and S.W. Bauer, "Press Freedom and War Constraints: Case Testing Siebert's Proposition II," journaiism Quarterly 46 (summer 1969): 243-54; Don R. Pembcr, The Smith Act as a Restraint on the Press, Journalism Monographs, no. 10 (Columbia, SC: AEJMC, 1969); and David H. Weaver, "The Press and Government Restrictions: A Cross-National Study over Time," Gazette 23 (summer 1977): 152-70. The second proposition was substantiated by Shaw and Bauer in an historical study, but its universality has been disputed by Weaver on the basis of a path analysis using data collected at four points in time from 137 countries. 2. John D. Stevens, "Freedom of Expression: New Directions" in Mass Media and the National Experience: Essays in Communications History, ed. R. T. Farrar and J. D. Stevens (NY: Harper and Row, 1971), 17-26. Although Stevens numbered his propositions as "III" and "IV" (in recognition of Siebert's earlier two hypotheses), his numbering has been changed to avoid confusing the readers of this article. 3. Stevens, "Freedom of Expression," 26. 4. Stevens, "Freedom of Expression," 17. 5. Robert Bishop, "Modernization and the European Press" (paper presented at the annual meeting of AEJ, Lawrence, KS, 1968). 6. Carl P. Burrowes, "Measuring Freedom of Expression Cross-Culturally: Some Methodological and Conceptual Problems," Mass Comm Review 16 (1989): 38-51. 7. Stevens, "Freedom of Expression," 22. 8. Of the twenty research collections that were visited, six proved particularly useful: the American Colonization Society Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (also available on microfilm through the Library of Congress, Photoduplication Service, Washington, DC; 331 reels); Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress; Library Company of Philadelphia, PA; Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; Rare Book and Special Collections, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ; and Schomburg Center for Research on Black Culture, New York Public Library. 9. Africa's Luminary, a semi-monthly newspaper published by the Methodist Episcopal Mission in Monrovia from 1839 to 1841, original vols. 1-3 (15 May 1839-17 December 1841) in Yale Divinity School Library; microfilm produced for the American Theological Library Association Board of Microtext, Chicago, by Dept. of Photoduplication, University of Chicago Library, 1970; 1 reel, 35 mm; the African Repository, themonthly journal of the ACS, published from 1825 to 1892, vols. 1-68 (March 1825-January 1892) available on microfilm from University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Mi; vols. 125 known as the African Repository and Colonial Journal; vol. 10 contains an index to vols. 1-10; the American Colonization Society Annual Report, 18181908/10, with a reprint available from Negro University Press, New York, 1969; Liberia Herald, a bi-monthly newspaper published by the colonial government from 1830 to 1845, when it reverted to private ownership, available in the following locations: Library Company of Philadelphia (15 February 1830, 3 May 1843); Library of Congress (6 April 1830, 6 June 1830, 22 April 1831, 22 June 1831, 22 July 1831; 22 February 1832, 7 June 1832, 1 August 1833, 4 September 1833, 20 November 1833, 24 December 1833, 24
32
January 1834, 24 February 1834, 7 June 1834, 27 December 1834; October 1839); and Maryland Colonization Society Papers (24 January 1844,30 March 1844,24 January 1845,15 March to 31 March 1845, 31 May 1845, 5 September 1845,7 November to 28 November 1845,3July to 17 July 1846,1 January 1847, 5 March 1847, 2 April 1847, 4 June to 30 July 1847; 26 August to 17 December 1847); and the Maryland Colonization Journal, a monthly journal published in Baltimore, MD, by the state auxiliary of the ACS from May 1835-May 1841; new series, June 1841-May 1861; available in the papers of the Maryland Colonization Society (an auxiliary of the ACS), on microfilm reels 28-29 from Scholarly Resources, Wilmington, DE; 31 rolls of 35mm, with guide. 10. For example, Randall M. Miller, ed.. Dear Master: Eetters of a Slave Family (Athens, G A: University of Georgia, 1991), and Bell L Wiley, ed.. Staves No More: Letters from Liberia, 1833-1869 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1980). 11. The major works on the movement are Penelope Campbell, Maryland in Africa: The Maryland State Colonization Society, 1831-1857 (Urbane: University of Illinois Press, 1971); E. L. Fox, The American Colonization Society, 18171840 (1919; reprint. New York: AMS Press, 1971); Floyd J. Miller, The Search for a Black Nationality: Black Emigration and Colonization, 1787-1863 (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1975); and P. J. Staudenraus, The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865 (NY: Columbia University Press, 1961). 12. These include Mary A. Brown, "Education and National Development in Liberia, 1800-1900" (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 1967); John M. d'Amico, "Spiritual and Secular Activitiesof the Methodist Episcopal Church in Liberia, 1833-1933" (Ph.D. diss., St. John's University, New York, 1977); Henry John Drewal, "Methodist Education in Liberia, 1833-1856," in Essays in the History of African Education, ed. Vincent M. Battle and Charles H. Lyons (NY: TeachersCollegePress, 1970);D. ElwoodDunn, AHis(on/q/"f/iep(sropfl/ Church in Liberia, 1821-1980 (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1992); John Walter Cason, "The Growth of Christianity in the Liberian Environment" (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1980); E. N. Hodgson, "The Presbyterian Mission to Liberia, 1832-1900" (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1980); William A. Poe, "Not Christopolis but Christ and Caesar: Baptist Leadership in Liberia," journal of Church and State 24 (autumn 1982): 535-51; Tom W. Shick, "Rhetoric and Reality: Colonization and Afro-American Missionaries in Early Nineteenth-Century Liberia," in Black Americans and the Missionary Movement in Africa, ed. Sylvia Jacobs (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1982). 13. The earliest and most influential work in this category is Henry B. Cole, "The Press in Liberia," Liberian Studies Journal 4 (1971-72): 147-55, which givesa chronological listingofmajornewspapersand their editors, with very little analysis of the data presented, and John Hanson, "The Liberian Press" (master's thesis, Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University, 1972), a largely descriptive work thatemploys sources uncritically; Momo K. Rogers, "Liberian Journalism, 1826-1980: A Descriptive History" {Ph.D. diss.. Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 1988), arguably the most comprehensive, critical, and insightful work in Liberia journalism history. Also see Henry B. Cole, "The Press in Liberia," in The Press in West Africa (Dakar: International Seminar on the Press and Progress in West Africa, 31 May 1960 to 4 June 1960); Henry B. Cole, "Research in the History of the Liberian Press," Kaafa 5 Ouly-December 1972): 32-47; Momo K. Rogers, "The Liberian Press: An Analysis," journalism Quarterly 63 (summer 1986): 275-81. 14. Rosalinde Ainslie, The Press in Africa: Past and Presen t (NY: Walker and
Pui.is FREEDOM IN LJBESIA. 1830701847: THE IMPACT OF HETERoGEtjEm AND MoDEKNny
Co., 1967). 15. These include Julia F. Gibson, "Criminal Libel in Liberia," Liberian Law journal 3 (Tune 1967): 68-79, which examines major sedition laws and cases, abstracted from their societal context; Charles H. Huberich, The Political and Legislative Historif of Liberia, 2 vols. (NY: Central Book Co., 1947), a twovolume documentary history of the country's statutes and politics; and Carl P, Burrowes, "Press Freedom in Liberia, 1830-1970" (Ph.D. diss.. Temple University, 1994). 16. D, Elwood Dunn and Sven E. Holsoe, Historical Dictionary of Liberia (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1985), 16-17; Tom W. Shick, Behold the Promise Land: A History of Afro-America}i Settler Soeiety (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980). 17. Forexample,seeSamuelJ.Mills," Abstract of a journal of the late Rev. Samuel John Mills," ACS Second Annual Report (1819), 18-67; Archibald Alexander, A History of Colonization on the Western Coast of Africa (Philadelphia: William S. Martien, 1847). 18. Dunn and Holsoe, Historical Dictionary, 1-8. 19. These towns and their populations were: Bassa Cove, 52; Edina, 67; Marshall, 68; Monrovia, 463; Sinoe, 40; Bexley, 50; Caldweli, 138; Millsburg, 95; and New Georgia, 121; see Christian A.CassL^W, Liberia: History of the First African Republic (NY: Fountainhead Publishers, 1970), 103, 111-12, and U.S. 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 Slates... Together with a Census of the Colom/ and a Report of its Commerce, &c. September, IS43, Senate Document No. 150,28th Congress, 2d session (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1S45). 20. U.S. Senate, U.S. Navy Department. Unless otherwise noted, all quantitative data given in this section are from that census. 21. Cassell, Liberia: History of the First African Republic, 103,106-108, 111; Shick, Behold the Promise Land, 33, 65-66, 74-75,166, n. 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. 22. U.S. Senate, U.S. Navi/ Department; and Hodgson, "The Presbyterian Mission." 23. Cole, "The Press in Liberia," 147-55, 147; Rogers, "Liberian Journalism, 1826-1980," 54-55. Although both Cole and Rogers credited Force with having published several issues of the Herald, that account is not plausible since no copies of those issues or contemporaneous acknowledgments have been found and the first issue published by Russwurm - available at the Library Company of Philadelphia - was laheled "Vol. 1, No. 1." TTiese silences would not likely have developed had Force actually published several issues, especially given the penchant of the ACS for preservation of its records and celebration of its every advance. 24. M. Sagarin, John Brown Russwurm: The Story of Freedom's journal and Freedom's journey (NY: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1970), 14,18, 21. 25. Rogers, "The Liberian Press," 275-81, 276-77; Rogers, "Liberian Journalism, 1826-1980," 6-57; Huberich, The Political and Le^^islative History, 431, 466, 471, 642. Following Huberich, Rogers dated Russwurm's fall from political grace with Monro\'ia repatriates to 1834, when he accepted control of the colony's finances at the request of ACSagent Joseph Mechlin Jr., a move that was unconstitutional and unpopular because it encroached on the duties of vice agent George R. McGill. Whatever resentment against Russwurm this incident might have generated probably was moderated by the personal relationship between the two men: John's first child, born that year, was given the first name of George McGill, who also happened to be the infant's
maternal grandfather. 26. "Editorial," Liberia Herald, 6 February 1831. 27. Huherich, The Political and Legislatii'e History, 47S-79. Before assuming office on 1 January 1834, Pinney had served as a missionary to Liberia in 1833. Born near Baltimore, MD, Pinney graduated from the University of Georgia at Athens in 1828 and was admitted to the Georgia bar. He later studied theology at Princeton Seminary and was ordained by the Presbyterian Church in 1832, devoting all his life thereafter to African-American colonization. 28. John B. Pinney to R.R. Gurley, 26 April 1835, ACS Papers. 29. Despite this precipitous departure, Pinney continued to support the colonization cause, serving first as ACS agent for the New England states, then editor of the New York Colonization Journal from 1830 to 1858, and Liberian consul general to the United States in 1860; see Huberich, The Political and Le^iislative History, 478-79. 30. Campbell, Maryland in Africa, 123-50. 31. j.S. Boulton, "Mr. Seys: A Footnote to the History of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society," London Quarterly Review 134 {October 1943): 352-56. 32. Huberich, The Political and Legislative History, 727, A New York native who had served from 1 January 1836 to August 1837 as governor of Bassa Cove, a colony of the Pennsylvania and New York auxiliaries of the ACS, Buchanan was scarcely 30 years old when in December 1838 he was appointed the first governor of the commonwealth of Liberia. 33. The account of the dispute that follows is derived entirely from a transcript of the trial that was recorded by two Methodist missionaries and published in two installments in Africa'!:^ Luminary, 18 September 1840, and Africa's Luminary, 2 October 1840 (hereafter cited at "Supreme Court Transcript"). In a display of "objectivity" that was unusual for that era, the writers placed editorial comments in brackets and used quote marks to distinguish verbatim comments of others from the rest of the text, which consisted largely of paraphrased material. Several searches through letters from Liberia in the ACS Papers produced no refutations of the facts presented in the Luminary, only questions about the motives of the Methodist missionaries, especially Seys. Copies of the Liberia Herald from this period, which were held by the Library of Congress prior to the 1960s, have since disappeared. Because the Africa's Luminary account is the only extant record of the case, it was not possible to verify the details given in the report. 34. Thomas Buchanan to Rev. John Seys, 21 August 1840, in "Supreme Court Transcript," Africa's Luminary, 2 October 1840, 54. 35. John Seys to Gov. Thomas Buchanan, 27August 1840in "Supreme Court Transcript," Africa's Luminary, 2 October 1840, 54. 36. Thomas Buchanan to Rev. John Seys, 28 August 1840 in "Supreme Court Transcript," Africa's Luminary, 2 October 1840, 54, 37. "SupremeCourtTranscript,"4/rii:fl'sLHm//iri/, 2October 1840,53-54. 38. "Supreme Court Transcript," Africa's Luminary, 2 October 1840, 56. 39. Wiley, Slaves No More, 317, Letter 37, n. 2. 40. "The Late Libel Suit," Africa's Luminary, 15 October 1841, 58; "More About the Trial," Africa's Luminary, 6 November 1840, 62. 41- "The Late Libel Suit," Africa's Luminary, 15 October 1841,58, quoting from a public letter by Gov. Tht)mas Buchanan. 42. "The Late Libel Suit," yl/ncff's/.imniKJri/, 15October 1841, 58, quoting from a pastoral letter from Rev. Seys to members of the Methodist Church,
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Grand Bassa County. 43. "The Late Libel Suit," Africa's Luminary, 15 October 1841, 58, quoting from a pastoral letter from Rev. Seys to members of the Methodist Church, Crand Bassa County. 44. "The Late Libel Suit," Africa's Luminary, 15 October 1841, 58, quoting from "Letter to the editor," Liberia Herald, 14 August 1841. 45. "The Late Libel Suit," Africa's Luminary, 15 October 1841,58, quoting from David Moore, "Swom statement before David White, justice of the peace," Liberia Herald, 14 August 1841. 46. "The Late Libel Suit," Africa's Luminary, 15 October 1841, 58, quoting from "Editorial," Liberia Herald, 14 August 1841. 47. "The Late Libel Suit," Africa's Luminary, 15 October 1841, 58. 48. Shick, Behold the Promise Land, 61, n. 29. 49. "Sermon on the Death of Governor Thomas Buchanan," African Repository, 15 January 1842,17-20. 50. Sagarin, John Broum Russwurm, 101-103,105, 111;Campbell,Maryland in Africa, 90, U4. 51. "Digest, Art. 1, Colony of Liberia, 19 August 1824," Code of Laws at Liberia (1828), in ACS Papers. 52. For a discussion of the occupational structure, see Shick, Behold the Promise Land, 33, 145. 53. John B. Bole, Masters and Slai'es in the House of the Lord: Race and Religion in the American South, 1740-1870 (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1988), 5,193 n. 9. Bole also noted that church attendance was far greater than church membership, given more demanding membership standards in the Antebellum period. 54. For example, Ralph R. Giirley, TheLifeofJehudiAshmun (Washington, DC: James C. Dunn, 1835), a panegyric for one of Liberia's white governors, written by an ACS manager. Following Anthony Gidden, The Consequences of Modernity (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990), I use modernity to cover the nexus of ideas and dispositions that are normally identified with the Scientific Revolution as well as the institutional arrangements associated with capitalism and industrialization. 55. For example, William Lloyd Garrison, Thoughts on African Colonization (Boston: Garrison and Knapp, 1831). 56. Carter G. Woodson, ed.. The Mind of the Negro as Reflected m Letters Written During the Crisis, 1800-1860 (Washington, DC: Associated Publishers, 1926), 2. 57. Woodson, The Mind of the Negro, 93. 58. This apparently refers to Anthony David Williams (1799-1860), acting governor from 25 September 1836 to 1 April 1839. 59. Hilary Teage to Ralph R. Gurley, Monrovia, 20 March 1829. 60. Hilary Teage to Samuel Wilkeson, Monrovia, 18 December 1840, printed as "Letter from Mr. Teage," African Repository, 15 March 1841, p. 95. Despite several searches, the original of this letter was not found among the ACS Papers. 61. Elijah Johnson to the Board of Directors of the ACS, Monrovia, 7 April 1841, ACS Papers. 62. S. Wilkeson toj. B. Pinney, Washington, DC, 21 December 1841, ACS Papers. 63. John B. Russwurm to R. R. Gurley, Liberia, 6 August 1833, ACS Papers. 64. Leading Seys supporters included Beverly R. Wilson, VA; Francis
346 JouRNAiJSM & MASS CoMMin^ic/mon QUARTLRLY
Payne, VA; Daniel Johnston, SC; John B. Gripon, SC; Samuel Benedict, GA; and N. M. Hick, PA. Information on the origins of these individuals was taken from Tom W. Shick, Einigranfs lo Liberia, 1820 to 1843 {Newark, DE: University of Delaware, 1971); D. N. Syfert, "The Origins of Privilege," Liberian Studies journal 6 (fall 1975): 109-28. 65. The Government Party candidates for the colonial council in the 1840 election were J. J. Roberts, VA; Hilary Teage, VA; Lewis Giples, SC; James Brown, DC; Lewis Sheridan, NC; John Hanson, MD; Nathaniel Harris, MD; and John Woodland, DC. Information on the origins of these individuals was taken from Shick, Emigrants to Liberia; Syfert, "The Origins of Privilege."
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