William Tubman

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman

(born Nov. 29, 1895, Harper, Liberia — died July 23, 1971, London, Eng.) President of Liberia (1944 – 71). Tubman educated himself in law before entering public service, eventually ascending to the Supreme Court (1937 – 44). As president, Tubman enacted suffrage and property rights for women, authorized participation in government by all ethnic groups, and established a nationwide public-school system.

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Political Biography: William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman

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(b. Maryland, Liberia, Nov. 1895; d. 23 July 1971) Liberian; President 1944 – 71 Born into a well-connected Americo-Liberian family in south-eastern Liberia, Tubman studied law and was elected in 1922 as the youngest ever member of the country's Senate. He was deputy president of the supreme court from 1937 to 1943, when he was chosen as the ruling True Whig Party candidate for the presidency; his election was a formality, and he took office in 1944.

He was an energetic and enterprising President, whose charm, folksy manner, and mastery of the intricacies of Liberian dynastic politics enabled him to gain a position of dominance. His declaration of war on Germany qualified Liberia for lend-lease aid from the United States, and his open-door policy for foreign investment, coupled with the adoption of the US dollar as domestic currency, brought investment especially in iron ore mining which led to rapid (if precarious) economic growth and swelled the government budget. Domestically, he sought to broaden the base of Liberian politics beyond the tiny coastal élite which had monopolized it since independence in 1847. He co-opted up-country people into positions of responsibility and expanded rural education, eventually extending full representation to the hinterland areas, though his government was still dominated by the old élite. He also amended the constitution, which had restricted presidential terms to eight years, to enable him to hold office indefinitely.

He adapted adroitly to the anti-colonial upsurge in neighbouring territories, holding a meeting with Touré and Nkrumah in 1959 and hosting a summit of independent African states in 1961, without allowing any radicalization of politics in Liberia itself. An inveterate drinker and womanizer, he ran Liberia in a highly personalized and generally easy-going fashion, while reacting sharply against any challenge to his authority. By the time of his death in office in 1971, the pressures of change which he had skilfully managed were undermining the élitist system of government which he had modernized and adapted but did not fundamentally alter.

Biography: William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman

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William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman (1895-1971) was the nineteenth president of Liberia. His efficient management during six terms began the transformation of his country into a modern state.

William V. S. Tubman was born on Nov. 29, 1895, in Harper, Maryland County, Liberia. His father, the Reverend Alexander Tubman, was a general in the Liberian army, former Speaker of the Liberian House of Representatives, former senator, and a Methodist minister. His mother, Elizabeth Rebecca Barnes Tubman, came from Atlanta, Ga. Tubman attended primary school in Harper, then the Methodist Cape Palmas Seminary, and finally Harper County High School. Between 1910 and 1917 he took part in several punitive military expeditions, rising in the ranks from private to officer status. He studied law under private tutors, served as a recorder in the Maryland County Monthly and Probate Court and as a collector of internal revenue, and in 1917 was appointed county attorney.

Tubman entered the national political scene in 1923, when, at the age of 28, he was elected senator from Maryland County to the national legislature. He served in this capacity until 1937, when President Edwin Barclay appointed him to the post of associate justice of the Liberian Supreme Court. An official biography contends that Tubman's elevation to the Supreme Court was designed to remove him from active contention for the presidency.

However, Tubman remained active in Liberia's dominant political party, the True Whig party, and by 1943 had risen to such political standing that President Barclay personally nominated Tubman to succeed him. Tubman was elected president in 1943 and reelected in 1951, 1955, 1959, 1963, 1967, and 1971, for seven consecutive terms, which gave him the longest tenure of any modern president anywhere. For reasons intrinsic to Liberia's political system, Tubman's presidential opponents never garnered more than a minuscule portion of the votes cast.

As president, Tubman's most significant contribution to Liberian politics was his "unification policy, " by which the hinterland counties, previously economically and politically neglected, were gradually brought into the national framework. The inland counties became fully represented in the Congress, roads and amenities were brought to the interior, and, most significantly, hinterland leaders began to play an important role in all areas of government. The open-door policy of Tubman, another major political line of his administration, permitted extensive foreign investment in Liberia's economy, particularly with respect to the development of the rich iron ore areas of Mt. Nimba and in the Bong and Wologosi ranges.

Tubman was a devout Methodist, a past grand master of the Masons, and a patron or officer in most of Liberia's important civic and voluntary organizations. He died on July 23, 1971, in London after surgery. He left a widow, Antoinette Padmore Tubman, and six children, one of whom, William V. S. Tubman, Jr., was president of the Congress of Industrial Organization, Liberia's principal trade union federation. Tubman was succeeded in the presidency by his vice president, William R. Tolbert.

William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman
Tubman in 1943
19th President of Liberia
In office January 3, 1944 – July 23, 1971
Vice President	Clarence Simpson (1944-1952) William R. Tolbert, Jr. (1952-1971)
Preceded by	Edwin Barclay
Succeeded by	William R. Tolbert, Jr.

Born	November 29, 1895(1895-11-29) Harper, Liberia
Died	July 23, 1971 (aged 75) Monrovia, Liberia
Political party	True Whig
Religion	Methodist

Youth and early political career

Tubman was born November 29, 1895 in Harper, Liberia. William Tubman's father, the Reverend Alexander Tubman, was a stonemason,^[1] general in the Liberian army and a former Speaker of the Liberian House of Representatives, as well as a Methodist preacher.^[2] Alexander Tubman's parents, Sylvia and William Shadrach Tubman, were part of a group of 69 slaves freed and sent to Liberia by Emily Tubman^[3] of Frankfort, Kentucky in 1844. They took the name Tubman after arriving in the country, naming their community Tubman Hill.^[4] His mother, Elizabeth Rebecca Barnes Tubman, came from Atlanta, Georgia.^[2] His father required him and his other four children to attend daily family prayer services and sleep on the floor because, he thought, beds were too soft and therefore "degrading to character development."^[1]

Tubman, the second son,^[1] went to primary school in Harper, then the Methodist Cape Palmas Seminary, and finally Harper County High School.^[2] He participated in several military operations from 1910 and 1917, rising from a private to become an officer.^[2] Tubman first planned to be a preacher and was named, at age 19, a Methodist lay pastor.^[1] After studying law under various private tutors, he passed the bar examination and became a lawyer in 1917.^[5] Subsequently, he served as a recorder in the Maryland County Monthly and Probate Court^[2] a tax collector, teacher, and even a colonel in a militia.^[5] He also attended Freemason lodges of the Prince Hall Freemasonry sect.^[6]

Having joined the True Whig Party (TWP), the dominating party of Liberia since 1878, Tubman began his career in politics. In 1923, aged 28, he was elected to the Senate of Liberia from Maryland County^[2], holding the record as the youngest senator in the history of Liberia.^[7] Labeling himself the "Convivial Cannibal from the Downcoast Hinterlands," he fought for constitutional rights for the Liberian majority, its tribespeople.^[1]

Re-elected to his post in 1929, Tubman became, while a Senator, the legal adviser to then-vice president Allen Yancy.^[5] He resigned from the Senate in 1931 to defend Liberia before the League of Nations amid allegations that his country was using slave labor.^[8] However, Tubman was reelected to the national legislature in 1934^[5], though he resigned in 1937 when President Edwin Barclay appointed him associate justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia,^[2] a post he held until 1943.^[5] An official biography speculates that Tubman's elevation to the Liberian Supreme Court was created to remove him from actively seeking the presidency.^[2]

The new president of Liberia

In December of 1942, Liberia was faced with the question of the succession of President Edwin Barclay. Six candidates then applied, including two favorites: Tubman and Foreign Minister Clarence L. Simpson.^[9] Without much opposition from Simpson, Tubman was elected president on May 4, 1943 at the age of 48, and was inaugurated January 3, 1944.^[10]

While Liberia's ally the United States had already used Liberia as a military base, the new president officially entered World War II on January 27, 1944.^[11] In foreign policy, Tubman aligned himself with the US (in June, 1944 he and Edwin Barclay traveled to the White House to be guests of President Franklin D. Roosevelt — the first African heads of state to have this happen^[1]) while strengthening ties among fellow Africans by participating in the Asian-African Conference of 1955 and the First Conference of Independent African States in Accra, organized by Kwame Nkrumah in 1958.^[12] In 1959, Tubman organized the Second Conference of African States.^[13]

In 1961, following a Pan-African conference held in Monrovia, Tubman helped in the founding of the group of Monrovia. This association of "moderate" African leaders worked for gradual unification of Africa, unlike the "revolutionary" group of Casablanca.^[14]

The "father of modern Liberia"

The modernizer of Liberia

Upon Tubman's succession to the Supreme Court, infrastructure in Liberia is virtually non-existent.^[15] Tubman explains this situation by the fact that Liberia never received "benefits of colonization".^[16] To remedy this problem, he decided to set up an economic policy, called the "porte ouverte" ("open door") policy.^[7] Working to facilitate and encourage foreign businesses to locate in Liberia, this policy was very successful, and between 1944 and 1970, the value of foreign investments, mainly American,^[15] increased two hundredfold.^[7] From 1950-1960, Liberia experienced an average annual growth of 11.5%.^[7]

This economic success for Liberia allowed Tubman to begin its modernization: the streets of Monrovia were paved, a sanitation system was created,^[16] hospitals were built,^[5] and a literacy program was launched in 1948.^[17] Tubman built several thousand kilometers of roads and established a railway line to connect the iron mines to the coast.^[15] During this period, he transformed the Port of Monrovia into a free port.^[15]

Economic prosperity

In early 1960, Liberia began to experience its first real era of prosperity, thanks in part to Tubman's modernization of infrastructure.^[7]

Regarded as a pro-Western, stabilizing influence in West Africa, Tubman was courted by many Western politicians, notably U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. Meanwhile, Tubman courted Amy Ashwood Garvey, and had a long-term relationship with her.^[18]

A gunman attempted to assassinate Tubman in 1955 at the behest of his political opponents, after which he cracked down brutally on any known opposition politicians.

Legacy

Tubman's term is best known for the policies of National Unification and the economic Open Door. He tried to reconcile the interests of the native tribes with those of the Americo-Liberian elite, and increased foreign investment in Liberia to stimulate economic growth. These policies led to the crowning achievement of the Liberian economy during the 1950s, when it had the second largest rate of economic growth in the world. At his death in 1971 in a London clinic, Liberia had the largest mercantile fleet in the world, the world's largest rubber industry, the third largest exporter of iron ore in the world and had attracted more than US$1 billion in foreign investment. He was succeeded as President by his long-time vice president William Tolbert. The economic prosperity of Liberia at this time would unleash political dissent with the autocratic rule of Tubman and the True Whig Party, leading to the overthrow of the True Whig oligarchy in 1980 by Samuel Doe. This would also destroy the economic prosperity of Liberia's golden age.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f William V. S. Tubman. (2008). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved June 03, 2008, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/608314/William-V-S-Tubman
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman UXL Newsmakers (2005)
^ Biography of Emily Tubman
^ William V.S. Tubman's ancestry
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Quentin, Dominique. W.V.S. Tubman. In Encyclopédie Universalis. Edition 1999.
^ L’étrange influence des francs-maçons en Afrique francophone, Infos Plus Gabon, 4 February 2006
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Otayek, René. Libéria. In Encyclopédie Universalis. Edition 1999.
^ "Key Figures". The Telegraph. 2003-10-14. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/campaigns/liberia/libkey.xml. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
^ "Front Door or Back?". Time. 1942-12-28. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,886103,00.html. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
^ "Elections in Liberia". African Elections Datebase. 2006-04-26. http://africanelections.tripod.com/lr.html. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
^ La situation des droits de l’homme au Libéria : un rêve de liberté p.6
^ William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman In Microsoft Encarta
^ Le plan stratégique de la commission de l’Union Africaine. Volume 1 : Vision d’avenir et missions de l’Union Africaine p.55
^ Sommet de l’Union africaine – Durban 2002 (4) : Ce que fut l'OUA… (article de RFI)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Person, Yves. Libéria In Encyclopédie Universalis. Edition 1973. p.9.
^ ^a ^b Uncle Shad's Jubilee Time Magazine
^ Rapport de l’Unesco sur l’alphabétisation (1965-1967) p.28
^ Garvey, Amy Ashwood, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

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v • d • e Presidents of Liberia

Joseph J. Roberts • Stephen Allen Benson • Daniel Bashiel Warner • James Spriggs Payne • Edward J. Roye • James Skivring Smith • Joseph J. Roberts • James Spriggs Payne • Anthony W. Gardiner • Alfred Francis Russell • Hilary R. W. Johnson • Joseph James Cheeseman • William D. Coleman • Garretson W. Gibson • Arthur Barclay • Daniel Edward Howard • Charles D. B. King • Edwin Barclay • William Tubman • William R. Tolbert, Jr. • Samuel Doe • Amos Sawyer† • David D. Kpormakpor† • Wilton G. S. Sankawulo† • Ruth Perry† • Charles G. Taylor • Moses Blah • Gyude Bryant† • Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf † denotes non-presidential head of state

Persondata
NAME	William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	William Tubman
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Liberian politician, 19th president of Liberia
DATE OF BIRTH	November 29, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH	Harper, Liberia
DATE OF DEATH	July 23, 1971
PLACE OF DEATH	Monrovia, Liberia

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