Robert Finley | |
|---|---|
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| President of the University of Georgia | |
| In office 1817–1817 | |
| Preceded by | John Brown |
| Succeeded by | Moses Waddel |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1772 Princeton, New Jersey,British America |
| Died | November 3, 1817 (aged 44–45) Athens, Georgia, U.S. |
| Spouse | Esther Caldwell |
| Children | Robert Finley, Rev., Esther Caldwell |
| Relatives | Josiah Finly (brother) James Caldwell (father-in-law) |
| Alma mater | College of New Jersey |
Robert Finley (1772 – November 3, 1817) was an AmericanPresbyterianclergyman and educator who is known as one of the founders of theAmerican Colonization Society, which established the colony ofLiberia in West Africa as a place for free African Americans.
He was a pastor for 20 years at a Presbyterian church inBasking Ridge, New Jersey, and also taught in elementary school and at a boys' academy. He served briefly in 1817 as the president of theUniversity of Georgia before his death.
Born inPrinceton, New Jersey, Finley had graduated at the age of 15 from theCollege of New Jersey (later developed and renamed asPrinceton University).
Finley was born inPrinceton, New Jersey, in 1772 to James Finley and his wife Ann Angrest. His father, James Finley, was born 1737 inGlasgow, Scotland, where he was trained as a yarn merchant and where he became acquainted with RevJohn Witherspoon, then a pastor in the town ofPaisley about six miles from Glasgow. His father immigrated from Scotland toNew Jersey in 1769. His paternal grandparents were James Finley from Paisley, and Ann McDonald Finley.
Robert Finley entered theCollege of New Jersey at the age of 11 and graduated in 1787, at the age of 15, at a time when it served more as a boys' academy.[1] He taught at several places, includingCharleston, South Carolina, where many households held enslaved African Americans. Thousands of others worked on plantations outside the city.
ThePresbytery ofNew Brunswick, New Jersey licensed Finley as aminister in 1794. He returned to Princeton in 1793 to study theology, and served as a tutor. He was appointed as a trustee of the university in 1806 and served until his resignation in 1817, when he departed for Georgia.[2]
In 1795, Finley was ordained as the pastor of thePresbyterian church atBasking Ridge, where he served for 19 years. He was a popular preacher and noted educator, developing the concept of the modernSunday School curriculum.[2]
Finley taught at the Princeton University Grammar School;[2] and at theBasking Ridge, New Jersey Classical School (Brick Academy), a boys' seminary. He worked there from 1795 until his acceptance of theUniversity of Georgia (UGA) presidency in July 1817.
In 1795, Dr. Robert Finley, re-established the private academy, known as the Basking Ridge Classical School, conducting classes first at the Presbyterian parsonage and then in a new frame school building erected near the church. In 1809, with enrollment expanding, Finley organized financing and construction of a new two-story brick building, prominently located in the center of the village of Basking Ridge (Brick Academy).
Boys were drawn both from the local area and from more distant places, such as Virginia and New York City, to attend this private preparatory academy. Most were given a classical education in preparation to enter theCollege of New Jersey (later expanded and renamed as Princeton University). Students boarded with Dr. Finley and other local residents. Two buildings still standing near the Brick Academy were later used as dormitories.
Dr. Finley andSamuel John Mills helped organize the National Colonization Society of America and theAmerican Colonization Society inWashington, D.C. in 1816 and 1817. They solicited contributions from many contemporaries, including former students such asCharles Muir Campbell.
TheAmerican Colonization Society (ACS) proposed to relocate free American blacks to a colony in West Africa. The Society gained support from both someabolitionists and slaveholders, for differing reasons. Free blacks faced discrimination in both the free states of the North, where slavery was abolished after the Revolution (in a gradual process in some places) and in the slave societies of the South. In the latter areas, free blacks were feared as being influential in disrupting slaves and leading slave rebellions.
Some abolitionists believed that black people would face better chances for freedom and prosperity inAfrica than in theUnited States. Also, if there were a colony available to them where they could be resettled, abolitionists hoped to gain moremanumissions of slaves and eventually end the institution. Between January 7, 1822, and the American Civil War, more than 15,000 freed and free-born American black people, and 3,198Afro-Caribbeans, relocated to the settlement. Pioneers suffered extremely high mortality rates in the early years from new tropical diseases and lack of sanitation and infrastructure.[citation needed] Finley's brother, Josiah Finley, was governor ofMississippi-in-Africa (an ACS colony on thePepper Coast) from June 1837 to 10 September 1838, when he was murdered by local fishermen.[3]
African Americans gradually moved into positions in the government of the colony. The Republic of Liberia declared its independence on July 26, 1847. The U.S. did not recognize Liberia's independence until February 5, 1862, during theAmerican Civil War, because of previous opposition by Southern Congressmen. After the South seceded, remaining legislators voted to recognize the republic.
Finley did not live to see any of these developments. Soon after the ACS was founded, Finley was selected as the next president of theUniversity of Georgia. In 1817, he fell ill during the journey south toAthens, Georgia. He died three months after arriving. Finley is buried inJackson Street Cemetery on the north campus of the university.
ThePresbyterian Historical Society inPhiladelphia,Pennsylvania, has sermons and a Latin manuscript from Robert Finley in its collections.
| Preceded by | President of the University of Georgia 1817 | Succeeded by |
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