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Alfred Francis Russell (25 August 1817 – 4 April 1884) was an Americo-Liberian missionary, planter and politician. Elected as vice-president of Liberia in 1881 under Anthony William Gardiner, he succeeded to the presidency after the latter resigned due to poor health. Russell served as tenth President of Liberia from 1883 to 1884. Born in Lexington, Kentucky, Russell was emancipated in 1833 (with his mother Amelie "Milly" Crawford) by their mistress Mary Owen Todd Russell Wickliffe (Russell's grandmother through his white father). Wickliffe also emancipated his cousin, Lucretia Russell, and her four children. Both families emigrated together from the United States to Liberia that year. Alfred Russell served as a Methodist missionary and later owned a large coffee and sugarcane farm. Russell continued to serve as a Methodist minister after entering politics; he was also elected to the Liberian Senate. ==Early life== Russell was born into slavery in 1817 Lexington, Kentucky, as the mixed-race, very white son of Amelie "Milly" Crawford, a mixed-race woman described as octoroon (meaning she was 7/8 European in ancestry). Their mistress was Jane Hawkins Todd Irvine. These two slaves were the subject of gossip in Lexington, first bruited by Robert S. Todd. Robert J. Breckinridge published a pamphlet revealing the Lexington gossip: that Alfred Francis Russell's father was John Russell, Irvine's grandson and Mary Owen Todd Russell Wickliffe's son from her previous marriage. During a summer visit with his grandmother, John Russell, then a student at Princeton University, took the enslaved octoroon Milly Crawford as a lover.〔 Their son Alfred was overwhelmingly European in ancestry and appearance; he was only 1/16 African. In many states at the time he would have been considered legally white although born into slavery. After Irvine's death in 1822, Alfred Russell and his mother were sold to Irvine's daughter Mary Owen Todd Russell Wickliffe and her husband Robert. (Mary Wickliffe was the mother of John Russell by her late husband James Russell.)〔(Wickliffe-Preston Family Papers, Introduction & Milly Crawford, 1833 )〕 Alfred and his mother called their new mistress Mrs. Polly; she was a wealthy heiress of the frontiersman, Colonel John Todd.〔(''Kentucky Ancestors:Genealogical Quarterly of the Kentucky Historical Society'' )〕 He was the brother of Levi Todd, the grandfather of Mary Todd Lincoln.〔(The Genealogy of Mary Todd Lincoln (see generation four) )〕 In 1833 Mary Wickliffe emancipated Alfred (her grandson by blood) and his mother Lucy; she also freed his cousin Lucretia (Lucy) Russell and her four children: Sinthia, Gilbert, George, and Henry, all of whom were of majority-white ancestry. They emigrated that year with nearly 200 other colonists to Liberia on the brig ''Ajax'' under auspices of the American Colonization Society;〔(Emigrants to Liberia between 1820 and 1843 ), University of Wisconsin〕〔(Emigrants to Liberia between 1820 and 1843 ), University of Wisconsin〕 Alfred was fifteen years old when they arrived with other pioneers in Liberia on July 11, 1833. Some 146 pioneers survived the voyage; about 30 children had died during the voyage.〔〔''17th Annual Report of the A.C.S.,'' 11; ''African Repository,'' IX (Oct 1833), p. 243〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alfred Francis Russell」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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