Statecraft & Independence
Landmark
Edward James Roye
1815 – 1872
Liberia's fifth president, overthrown and killed
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Why they are here
A merchant who became Chief Justice and then president, and was deposed in the 1871 coup and killed — the first violent removal of a Liberian head of state.
Edward James Roye was born in Newark, Ohio, to free Black parents, ran a business there, and emigrated to Liberia in 1846 — arriving as a wealthy man in a republic run by an elite of lighter-skinned settlers who had come a generation earlier.
He built a shipping and trading business, served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and in 1870 became the fifth president of Liberia and the first from the True Whig Party, which would then hold power continuously for over a century. He was also the first dark-skinned Americo-Liberian president, in a society where the distinction carried real weight.
His presidency turned on a loan. Liberia needed money for roads and development and had almost no revenue, and Roye negotiated a £100,000 loan in London on terms that were, by any reading, ruinous — heavy discounting and commissions meant the country received a fraction of the face value while owing all of it. Whether he was defrauded, negligent, or complicit is still argued.
He also attempted to extend the presidential term from two years to four, which his opponents took as an attempt to entrench himself. He was deposed in October 1871, imprisoned, and died shortly afterwards — accounts differ as to whether he drowned attempting to escape or was killed. It was the first violent removal of a Liberian head of state, and the loan poisoned Liberia's finances for decades.
He built a shipping and trading business, served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and in 1870 became the fifth president of Liberia and the first from the True Whig Party, which would then hold power continuously for over a century. He was also the first dark-skinned Americo-Liberian president, in a society where the distinction carried real weight.
His presidency turned on a loan. Liberia needed money for roads and development and had almost no revenue, and Roye negotiated a £100,000 loan in London on terms that were, by any reading, ruinous — heavy discounting and commissions meant the country received a fraction of the face value while owing all of it. Whether he was defrauded, negligent, or complicit is still argued.
He also attempted to extend the presidential term from two years to four, which his opponents took as an attempt to entrench himself. He was deposed in October 1871, imprisoned, and died shortly afterwards — accounts differ as to whether he drowned attempting to escape or was killed. It was the first violent removal of a Liberian head of state, and the loan poisoned Liberia's finances for decades.
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