James Skivring Smith, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

James Skivring Smith

President of Liberia

Date of Birth: 26-Feb-1825

Place of Birth: Charleston, South Carolina, United States

Date of Death: 01-Jan-1892

Profession: politician

Nationality: Liberia

Zodiac Sign: Pisces


Show Famous Birthdays Today, Liberia

👉 Worldwide Celebrity Birthdays Today

About James Skivring Smith

  • James Skivring Smith (February 26, 1825 – 1892) was a Liberian politician who served as the 6th President of Liberia from 1871 to 1872.
  • Prior to this, he served as the 8th Vice President of Liberia from 1870 to 1871 under President Edward James Roye and as Secretary of State from 1856 to 1860 in the cabinet of President Stephen Allen Benson.
  • He was a member of the True Whig Party. Smith was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1825 to a family of free blacks.
  • He arrived with his family in Liberia in 1833, and his parents died of malaria within a year.
  • As a young man, he trained under Dr.
  • James W.
  • Lugenbeel, a medical doctor of the American Colonization Society.
  • He then returned to the United States to study medicine at the University of Vermont College of Medicine.
  • He transferred to Berkshire Medical College in Massachusetts, graduating with his medical degree in 1848.
  • He was the second African American to receive a Doctor of Medicine from an American medical school, after David J.
  • Peck a year earlier.
  • After graduating, he returned to the newly independent Liberia to work as a physician. In 1855, Smith was elected to the Senate, representing Grand Bassa County.
  • From 1856 to 1860, he was Secretary of State under President Stephen Allen Benson.
  • In the 1869 presidential election, Smith was elected Vice President alongside President Edward James Roye.
  • He and Roye were the first True Whig politicians to hold their respective offices.
  • In 1871, after Roye was forced out of office, Smith served as president for the remainder of Roye's term.
  • His two-month president remains the shortest in Liberian history.
  • At the end of his presidential term, Smith returned home to Buchanan, and served as Superintendent of Grand Bassa County from 1874 to 1884.
  • His son James Skivring Smith Jr.
  • went on to serve as Vice President from 1930 to 1944.

Read more at Wikipedia

See Also