Two letters written by James Milton Turner, offering his services for the 1884 U.S. presidential campaign of Republican James Gillespie Blaine (1830-1893).

James Milton Turner, Missouri's most prominent nineteenth-century African American political figure, possessed a deep faith in America. The Civil War, he believed, had purged the land of its sins and allowed the country to realize what had always been its promise: the creation of a social and political environment in which merit, not race, mattered. Born a slave, Turner gained freedom when he was a child and received his education in clandestine St. Louis schools, later briefly attending Oberlin College. A self-taught lawyer, Turner earned a statewide reputation and wielded power far out of proportion to Missouri's relatively small black population. After working nearly a decade in Liberia, Turner never regained the prominence he had enjoyed during Reconstruction.

Kremer (Missouri State Archivist) relates the remarkable story of Missouri's most prominent 19th-century African-American political figure. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

J. Milton Turner, a towering figure in advancing human rights, is an inspirational story for all people. In order to tell his story, we have used 19th century documents such as letters and government dispatches, newspaper interviews and journals. But throughout this story we have also created some dialogue so the young reader has a stronger sense of Turner's personal experiences. We refer to Turner throughout the book as James or J. Milton. When Turner was born, slaves were commonly called by their first name. As an adult he referred to himself as J. Milton Turner. At the end of the book we have included questions for readers meant to encourage additional learning and discussions about James Milton Turner and the time in which he lived.

Liberian Politics tells the fascinating story of Liberia's early nation-building efforts, its attempts to establish democracy, and the pivotal role played by African Americans in exporting the American democratic experiment to Liberia. The story of the rise of Africa's oldest democracy is told through the writings of J. Milton Turner, an African American diplomat who served in Liberia from 1871 to 1878. Turner's official diplomatic correspondence--superbly organized and edited by Walton, Rosser, and Stevenson--document Liberia's struggle to define its political institutions and processes. They chart Liberia's struggle to establish its relationship with the wider world and offer an intimate portrait of Turner's role as the agent of U.S. foreign policy in Liberia. A comparative study in the best tradition of Tocqueville and Myrdal, this pathbreaking work reveals the global dimensions of nineteenth-century African American politics and offers rich insight into the direction of early U.S. diplomacy in Africa.