Alfred Francis Russell
| Alfred Francis Russell | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 10th President of Liberia | |
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In office January 20, 1883 – January 7, 1884 |
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| Preceded by | Anthony William Gardiner |
| Succeeded by | Hilary R. W. Johnson |
| 10th Vice President of Liberia | |
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In office January 7, 1878 – January 20, 1883 |
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| President | Anthony William Gardiner |
| Preceded by | Charles Harmon |
| Succeeded by | James Thompson |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
August 25, 1817 Lexington, Kentucky, United States |
| Died | April 4, 1884 (aged 66) Liberia |
| Political party | True Whig |
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.
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.) Alfred and his mother called their new mistress Mrs. Polly; she was a wealthy heiress of the frontiersman, Colonel John Todd. He was the brother of Levi Todd, the grandfather of Mary Todd Lincoln.
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