What made you decide to write this nonfiction work? Several years ago, I stumbled across the tale of Ben Major and the enslaved people he had freed for migration to Liberia. I was stunned to learn that they had corresponded across the Atlantic Ocean for years, and—even more astonishing—that their letters from Africa still existed. The first time I read the Major letters, I was moved to tears. I sat quietly, alone, in a museum reading room and absorbed the thought that I was holding a letter written by a former slave, a brittle and faded piece of paper that had sailed across the ocean on a ship more than a century and a half earlier.
I wanted to know more. Why did Ben Major, who descended from a long line of slave owners, free his enslaved people? Did the newly emancipated people want to go to another country? Did they have a choice? What would life in Africa have been like for them? What was the colonization movement about? Were those who supported colonization motivated by noble or nefarious intentions?
My book was a way to answer those questions for myself and share the story with others.
Can you talk about your experience of researching this nonfiction work? And the dates of when you began researching and when your research was complete? I started research in 2012 and completed it in about 2018. I was working full time and conducted most of my research in evenings, on weekends, and on vacation days.
The critical source for the story is the Major Collection of Letters from Liberia, now housed at the McLean County Museum of History in Bloomington, Illinois.
Click on the below link to visit Mclean Count Museum of History’s website
I also conducted research at numerous other museums, historical societies, genealogical societies, libraries (including the Library of Congress), universities, various archives and collections, courthouse records, online resources, books, academic journals, old newspaper articles, and even cemetery records.
Click on the below link to visit the website of the Library of Congress James Madison Memorial Building.
https://www.loc.gov/visit/online-tours/james-madison-memorial-building/
I traveled to seven or eight states and spent a full week in Washington, DC at the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and the Smithsonian Museum of American History.
Click on the below link to visit the website of the National Archives
Click on the below link to visit the website of the Smithsonian Museum of American History
https://americanhistory.si.edu/
I joined the Liberian Studies Association and met valuable contacts and information sources there. I tracked down two descendants of the former slave owner, who generously shared with me their private collection of his correspondence and household records.
Click on the below link to visit the website of the Liberian Studies Association.
https://liberiastudies.squarespace.com/
I researched several topics and subtopics for the book: the lives of Ben Major and George Harland, who had owned and then freed these emigrants; slavery in the United States in the early 1830s and specifically slavery in Kentucky; the colonization movement and motivations of those who supported or opposed it; the establishment of the colony of Liberia; life in Liberia; reactions from indigenous people to the new settlers, and the impact of the colonization movement on Liberia’s history.
I used endnotes (more than 400 of them) to cite sources of information and included a bibliography of more than 26 pages.
This is a receipt for human beings, issued to Joseph Major, the brother of Ben Major, the man who freed his enslaved people for immigration to Liberia. The newly emancipated slaves were turned over to the Christian County Colonization Society. (Photo: Susan E. Lindsey)
This was the first letter one of the Liberian settlers, Tolbert Major, sent to Ben Major in 1836. (McLean County Museum of History, Bloomington, IL)
What is the date you began writing this piece of nonfiction and the date when you finished writing the piece of nonfiction? I started writing almost as soon as I started researching. For me, writing is a way to sort through and organize material, and a means to process what I’m learning, discern patterns, and make sense of it all. I finished final revisions in 2019.
ABOVE and BELOW: The author was able to track down two sisters who are descendants of Ben Major. One of them still lives in the old family home and allowed the author and her research assistant access to Ben’s private papers, correspondence, and other documents in the family attic.
Where did you do most of your writing for this nonfiction work? I prefer to work at a desk, so (through four moves), I worked in my various home office spaces. I finished up the manuscript in my second-floor office in a Victorian-era home in Old Louisville (Kentucky), overlooking the back garden.
What were your writing habits while writing this work—did you drink something as you wrote, listen to music, write in pen and paper, directly on laptop; specific time of day? I drink coffee or water when I’m writing. I rarely listen to music while writing because I find the lyrics distract me from the narrative I’m composing. I typically write directly onto a desktop computer. While traveling to conduct research, I took notes on my laptop or wrote them in spiral notebooks. I wrote whenever I had the time, but found I was most productive in the early morning.
Please include an excerpt of one FACT or one set of FACTS that you were most impacted by in this nonfiction work. The excerpt can be as short or as long as you prefer. “For ninety-three years, until 1913, the American Colonization Society supported emigration of formerly enslaved people and freeborn black people from the United States to Liberia, ultimately transporting sixteen thousand people across the ocean. It was the largest out-migration in American history.”
Click on the link below to order Liberty Brought Us Here: The True Story of American Slaves Who Migrated to Liberia from University Press of Kentucky
Click on the link below to order Liberty Brought Us Here: The True Story of American Slaves Who Migrated to Liberia from Amazon
Why was this one fact or one set of facts so compelling for you to discover and to write about? I was surprised by so many aspects of this: the fact that the colonization movement was active for so long—nearly a century and long after the Civil War and constitutional amendments had ended slavery; that so many people migrated from the United States; and that it was the largest out-migration in American history, yet we were taught little or nothing about it in school.
Were there any deletions from this excerpt that you can share with us? And can you please include a photo of your marked up rough drafts of this excerpt. I made edits to this excerpt throughout the writing process. However, I don’t electronically track changes in my own work. I may have marked up hard copy at some point, but I have discarded all the rough drafts. However, here is the same passage from a very early draft. You can see that, while there are small changes, the meaning is essentially the same:
Anything you would like to add? When I researched and wrote this book, I was living in Louisville, Kentucky. As I worked on this tale of migration, little did I imagine that I would someday be an immigrant in a new land myself.
After a career in communication, public relations, editing, and writing, I decided to retire in late 2020. I had long daydreamed about retiring in Europe, but didn’t think it was realistic. After doing research and crunching some numbers, I found I could retire in Portugal. Like many of the migrants to Liberia, I moved to a country where I didn’t speak the language, didn’t know much about the culture or history, and had no friends or family. Yet I had resources they never could have imagined: guidebooks, maps, and social media that connected me with others who had made the move or were considering it. Since moving, I’ve often thought of these people who—so long ago—had the courage to make new lives in a new land.