Bob Gray (Bassa)

Chief Bob Gray (also: King Kadasie ) was an influential king of the Bassa on the Pepper Coast in West Africa who ruled in the first half of the 19th century .

Life

The Bassa people, who predominantly live in the Grand Bassa County of the Republic of Liberia, belong next to the Kru to the peoples who were the first and most intensely to come into close contact with European explorers, sailors, traders and later slave buyers. At the turn of the 19th century the Bassa kings were influential intermediaries and middlemen in the slave, gold and ivory trade.

Around 1830, the New York City Colonization Society and the Pennsylvania Colonization Societies began to negotiate the sale of land at the mouth of the Saint John River with the Bassa King Kadasie, who lived there. The king, later simply called Chief Bob Gray by the settlers, was ruler of about 6,000 warriors and devoted to the settlers. He initially allowed the establishment of the colonies of Edina near the Bassa fishing village of Dyabian-win and Port Cresson in 1832. While Bob Gray of the Cooperation with the settlers benefited, several neighboring kings rebelled and took up arms. Port Cresson , which was still under construction , was destroyed and the settlers fled to Edina , where they hoped for protection from Bob Gray . After more settlers had arrived from the USA, a second attempt was made to found the Bassa Cove Colony on the ruins of Port Cesson . Bob Gray was also a promoter of his bassa's education. It enabled the establishment of the first mission school in Edina.

Honor

In gratitude for his help in building the town of Edina and the colony of Bassa Cove, the settlers of Edina erected a memorial for Bob Gray that is still preserved.

Individual evidence

1. ^ History. City of Edina, Liberia, 2011, accessed February 1, 2011 .  
2. ^ Anthony Morgan Jr .: Kru Wars: Southeastern Revolt in 19th to Early 20th Century Liberia. 2011, accessed on February 1, 2011 (English): “They established fishing and migrant worker settlements along the coast as far east as Cameroon and as far west as Freetown and Cape Verde. Their skill with canoes in the treacherous surf waters was already world renowned by the 1700s, when they served on British merchant and war ships, and even established small settlements in Liverpool and in the Americas. They lived mostly in five large towns along the coast: Nana Kru, Settra Kru, King Willie Town, Fish town, and Sass town, the largest and most powerful. These towns produced mariners primarily. The arrival in the 1820s of African-American settlers at first had very little impact on the Kru. "Quee people", as the locals referred to the westernized colonists at Greenville and Harper, were far from unknown on the Kru Coast. The Krus and Grebos themselves had a sizable population of western-educated people living among them for decades. Some of these "civilized" Grebo and Kru had been educated in Sierra Leone, on the Gold Coast, and in Britain. "  
3. ↑ Syrulwa Somah: The Role of the Bassa in Liberia reshaping. (No longer available online.) May 28, 2004, archived from the original on October 18, 2011 ; accessed on February 1, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ^ Edina, Grand Bassa, Liberia: Monument to Chief Bob Gray & Founding Fathers. In: PANORAMIO. Retrieved February 1, 2011 .