Martin Henry Freeman

Martin Henry Freeman, c. 1880s

Martin Henry Freeman (1826–1889) was the first Black president of an American college. He also later served as president of Liberia College.

Biography

Freeman was born in Rutland, Vermont in 1826. He attended Middlebury College, where he graduated as salutatorian in 1849. The following year he was appointed a professor of mathematics and science at the Allegheny Institute (later Avery College) in Pennsylvania. He was named president of the college in 1856.

Liberia College in 1893

During the Civil War, Freeman became active in the African emigration movement. He moved to Liberia in 1864. He continued his work as a professor at Liberia College and was named as president of that college shortly before his death.

In culture

Dr. Russell Irvine of Georgia State University, author of The African American Quest for Institutions of Higher Education Before the Civil War: The Forgotten Histories of the Ashmun Institute, Liberia College, and Avery College (2010), wrote the first biography of Martin Henry Freeman. Titled Martin H. Freeman of Rutland: America's First Black College Professor and Pioneering Black Social Activist (1996), it was first published as an article in Volume XXVI, Number 3 of the Rutland Historical Society Quarterly and later appeared in Professor Irvine's book, The History of Black Higher and Professional Education.

External links

• "Martin Henry Freeman, Class of 1849". Middlebury History Online.