[Newspaper]: Liberia Register. December 21, 1870

Monrovia, Liberia: Liberia Register, 1870. Softcover. Good. First edition. One loose issue: Vol. 1. December 21, 1870. Single sheet folded to make four unpaginated folio pages (12¼" x 20¼"), printed in four columns. Top margin above the masthead has small ink stamp of an historical society, together with a "withdrawn" stamp. Top right corner of first page is moderately soiled, horizontal and vertical creases (where folded for mailing), with some partial splitting and a few small closed tears at the folds, a good copy overall of this fragile publication. A very rare early issue of this monthly newspaper printed in Monrovia, presumably published under the auspices of the American Colonization Society, which was founded in 1817 with the goal of returning freed slaves to Africa. In 1822, the society established the colony of Liberia, and by 1867 more than 13,000 slaves had emigrated to Liberia. An important issue, with nearly the entire front page printing the detailed "Message" of the African-American Liberian President Edward James Roye, and nearly the entire final page printing an excerpt from the Diary of African-American politician and explorer William Spencer Anderson: "Journey to the Barline Country" (an expedition to drive a road from Monrovia to Moussodougou, in what is now Burkina Faso). Also included is another substantial excerpt from the Journal of West African Nationalist Edward W. Blyden: "Visit to Boporo" in which he describes his inland tour from Monrovia to Boporo, and discovers that it is an important center of Muslim learning. This issue also prints recently enacted laws, including: "An Act To Incorporate the Ladies United Society of Cape Palmas" and a "Constitutional Amendment" by which the Presidential term of office is extended to four years; articles on "The War in Europe," and "The Feast of Ramadhan," together with a long article devoted to "African Literature". A scarce, well-preserved survival. *OCLC* locates only one single issue of this newspaper (July 6, 1870) at Yale University.