Local NewsNewsWorld Liberia: Pilgrimage to Barbados Set for May 6-13 2024 by Barbados Today 07/05/2023 written by Barbados Today Updated by Desmond Brown 07/05/2023 1 min read A+A- Reset Share FacebookTwitterLinkedinWhatsappEmail 905 During his meeting, Witherspoon presented the Prime Minister with the results of one of his research projects, the paper titled: Portes Find A New Home in Liberia — Story of the Post-Emancipation Emigration of The John Prince Porte Family from Barbados to Liberia, West Africa in 1865. The family was one of about 50 that comprised what remains the only organized emigration of Barbadians to Liberia, indeed Africa. Commenting on the research Paper, Elfric K. Porte, Sr., the eldest great-grandchild of John Prince Porte, wrote: “Coming 150 years after the arrival of our forebears in Liberia from Barbados, the family is proud of this initiative, which firmly and finally connects the dots of our family’s origins and paves the way for the reunion with our living relatives in Barbados….” From the hundreds of Barbadians who returned to Liberia in the 1860s, that country has produced two political leaders, including President Arthur Barclay, who, as a boy, spent the first dozen years of his life in Barbados. Settled by returning, formerly enslaved Africans from the United States in 1822, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Côte d’Ivoire border Liberia. Although Liberia declared its independence on July 26, 1847, it was not until September 23, 1862, that the United States recognized it. Under the auspices of the Barbados Company, Sarah Ann Bourne Barclay, daughter of Black business luminary and abolitionist London Bourne (who was born a slave in Barbados), together with her husband, Anthony Barclay Jr, led the 346 emigrants to Liberia in 1865.]]>
