Ashmun, Jehudi, 1794–1828, U.S. agent to Liberia, b. Champlain, N.Y. After entering the Congregationalist ministry and spending a few years in teaching and editorial work, he was sent by the American Colonization Society to Liberia. He found the colony ridden with fever, short of supplies, and threatened by native attack. Ashmun with a handful of men repulsed the attacks, and for the next six years, despite severe hardships, he built up the colony. He wrote History of the American Colony in Liberia from December 1821 to 1823 (1826).
See biography by R. R. Gurley (1835, repr. 1971).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: U.S. History: Biographies
