The Erskine Family and the Emigration of Freed Black People to Liberia

Portrait of Martha Ann Erskine Ricks covered by her coffee tree; the quilted globe behind her reflects freed Black people’s journey from the Americas to Liberia.

NPS Photo by Meliya Evans

Background Information

In 2018, Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GRSMNP) began The African American Experience (AAE) project, now called the African American Experiences in the Smokies (AAES) project. This project focuses on the experiences and stories of African Americans in the Smokies and surrounding areas to bring visibility to this historically overlooked population.

While it is known that the Quakers of Friendsville, TN established Underground Railroad sites that assisted runaway enslaved people through Great Smoky Mountains, AAES has not yet found extensive details and information on the Underground Railroad branch that served this region.

However, we do know that there was a prominent anti-slavery movement in East Tennessee where abolitionists in Maryville worked to not only free the enslaved, but also emigrate both free and freed Black people to Liberia. Liberia was a colony at the time that was established by the American Colonization Society. It’s purpose was to serve as a home place for freed Black people of the Americas to be relocated back to West Africa, the region from which they were originally captured and abducted.

The Establishment of Liberia

Liberia was founded by the American Colonization Society on January 7, 1822. It is located south of Sierra Leone in West Africa. Free and freed Black people from the United States and the Caribbean began arriving in Sierra Leone, a British colony at the time, in 1820. The first group of Africans to migrate to what became the colony of Liberia arrived on February 6, 1820. Liberia was Africa’s first republic to gain its independence in 1822.

Liberia was established with the abolitionist effort to relocate formerly enslaved and free Black people from the Americas back to West Africa. From 1820 to 1864, about 11,000 to 12,000 free Black people and those who were formerly enslaved emigrated to Liberia. Black emigrants continued to settle in Liberia after the Civil War. Over 200 relocated to Liberia from East Tennessee from 1867 to 1873 in search of more opportunities and an escape from racial violence.

The Erskine Family

George Erskine was a minister who was formerly enslaved in Blount County.¹ In 1815 a Presbyterian minister named Dr. Isaac Anderson petitioned the Blount County Court to emancipate Erskine.

Anderson purchased Erskine in 1816 and immediately freed him. In 1819 Erskine became the first Black student to attend a higher education institution in Tennessee, this is the same year that the college was opened by Anderson. Maryville College was an anti-slavery institution.² Erskine was one of Anderson’s first students. In the 1820s, Erskine became a minister in the Presbyterian Church.

During the decade following his emancipation, Erskine worked to purchase and free his family of nine. He was involved in the abolitionist effort to emigrate free and freed Black people in the United States to Liberia. In 1830 Erskine relocated his there. Much of the family passed away shortly after arriving to Liberia where they settled in Clay Ashland.

George Erskine’s son, Hopkins W. Erskine was ten years old when he emigrated from Knoxville to Liberia. Hopkins Erskine was educated in Liberia where he became a Presbyterian minister like his father. He attended Ashum College, now called Lincoln University, in Liberia where he was an early graduate. In addition to serving as the superintendent of Alexander High School in Clay Ashland, Erskine became a career politician after being elected to the Liberian House of Representatives in 1853. In 1866 he returned to Knoxville from Liberia where he began recruiting more Black people in the area to emigrate to Liberia.

Hopkins Erskine had one surviving sister named Martha Ann Erskine Ricks. She was about 13 years old when the family emigrated to Liberia. Ricks became a farmer and grew vegetables and other crops like cocoa, coffee, and ginger. She settled on a farm in Clay Ashland and was known to be a skilled needlewoman and inspired women in the community to quilt, as she brought the quilting practices of the American south with her to Liberia. Ricks passed away in 1901.

¹ By 1860, 10% of Blount County’s population was enslaved.

Martha Ann Erskine Ricks and the Story of Her Coffee Tree Quilt

As a woman who was born into slavery, Martha Ann Erskine Ricks was an admirer of Queen Victoria of England due to her support of the anti-slavery movement, as well as her support of Liberia. The United Kingdom was the first country to recognize Liberia’s independence. She dreamed of meeting the queen to thank her for her support and decided that upon meeting her she would gift her a handmade quilt. Ricks spent five decades hoping to gift the queen this quilt in person.

At about 75 years old, Ricks boarded a ship to England from Liberia where she met Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle in 1892. She gifted the queen a satin quilt that she made by hand. It was adorned with a decorative coffee tree. Coffee was the most successful crop on Ricks’ farm and was symbolic of Liberia’s potential, according to her great-great niece, Evangeline Morris Dennis. Her visit to the United Kingdom made global news at the time. While women of Clay Ashland have made replicas of Ricks’ coffee tree quilt, the original quilt that was gifted to the queen of England has, unfortunately, been long lost.

² East Tennessee has a strong abolitionist presence and the first anti-slavery paper in the United States was published there in 1826.

 

Research Resources

College, Loyal. “Image 1 of an Appeal for the Loyal College, Maryville, East Tennessee. [1867].” Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, 1867, www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.17503300/. Accessed 15 Mar. 2023.

Crooks, Mary. “African Americans Migrate to Liberia.” Education.nationalgeographic.org, National Geographic, 20 May 2022, education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/african-americans-migrate-liberia/. Accessed 15 Mar. 2023.

Dale, Penny. “How a Former Slave Gave a Quilt to Queen Victoria.” BBC News, 6 July 2017, www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-40500884. Accessed 15 Mar. 2023.

Little, Becky. “How a Movement to Send Freed Slaves to Africa Created Liberia.” HISTORY, The History Channel, Apr. 2019, www.history.com/news/slavery-american-colonization-society-liberia. Accessed 15 Mar. 2023.

Sanderfer, Selena. “Tennessee’s Black Postwar Emigration Movements, 1866–1880.” History Faculty Publications, vol. LXXIII, no. Number 4, 1 Jan. 2014, digitalcommons.wku.edu/history_fac_pubs/4/. Accessed 15 Mar. 2023.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Liberia Emigration and Immigration.” Familysearch.org, Family Search, 2 Nov. 2022, www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Liberia_Emigration_and_Immigration#:~:text=Between%201822%20and%20the%20outbreak. Accessed 15 Mar. 2023.

Tyler-McGraw, Marie. “Virginia Emigrants to Liberia.” Www.vcdh.virginia.edu, Virginia Center for Digital History, 1 May 2008, www.vcdh.virginia.edu/liberia/index.php?page=Stories§ion=Martha%20Ricks. Accessed 15 Mar. 2023.