# Edward James Roye

Edward James Roye (February 3, 1815 – February 11, 1872) was a Liberian merchant and politician who served as the fifth president of Liberia from 1870 until his overthrow in the 1871 Liberian coup d'état and subsequent death. He had previously served as the fourth Chief Justice of Liberia from 1865 until 1868. He was the first member of Liberia's True Whig Party to serve as president.

## Early life

Roye was born on February 3, 1815, in Newark, Ohio. He was the son of John and Nancy Roye, freed African-American slaves who had moved to Ohio from Kentucky and bought a property in Newark. They were reportedly of Igbo origin.
Roye's father managed a ferry across the Wabash River at Terre Haute, Indiana. He owned property in Newark, Terre Haute and Vandalia, Illinois. Due to his family's prosperity, Roye was able to attend Ohio University. He moved to Terre Haute after his father's death in 1836, where he established the African-American community's largest barbershop.

## Emigration to Liberia

In 1846, attracted by the American Colonization Society's promotion of the relocation of African Americans to the colony of Liberia in West Africa, Roye emigrated to the colony with his family at the age of 31. There he set up business as a merchant, reportedly bringing $1,000 of capital (equivalent to $30,000 in 2024) with him. The next year, the colony gained independence. Within three years of his arrival, Roye became active in Liberian politics, serving as a representative and speaker (1849–1850) of the Liberian House of Representatives, and as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia, He was also the Secretary of the Treasury. and unsuccessfully contested the presidential elections in 1855.
In 1857, Roye purchased the brig Eusebia for the purposes of conducting a trading business between Monrovia and New York City. His typical cargo included camwood, palm oil and ivory. By 1870 he reportedly had a fortune estimated at $200,000 (equivalent to $5,000,000 in 2024).

## Presidency (1870–71)

Roye was inaugurated as President of Liberia on January 3, 1870. In the decades after 1868, escalating economic difficulties weakened the state's dominance over the coastal indigenous tribal peoples. Conditions worsened, the cost of imports was far greater than the income generated by exports of its commodity crops of coffee, rice, palm oil, sugarcane, and timber. Liberia tried desperately to modernize its largely agricultural economy.

### Financial problems

In 1871, Roye tasked the speaker of the House of Representatives, William Spencer Anderson, with negotiating a new loan from British financiers. Anderson secured $500,000 under strict terms from the British consul-general, David Chinery, but was heavily criticised and eventually arrested. Anderson was apparently tried the following year for his part in securing the loan. He was found not guilty, but he was shot to death while leaving the courthouse.

### End of presidency

Roye was removed from the presidency on October 26, 1871, in what some allies called a coup d'état. The circumstances surrounding his removal from office, however, remain murky and highly partisan. What is known is that he was jailed for several months following his ousting and soon died under equally mysterious circumstances. His unpopular loans with Britain as well as fears from the Republican Party that he was planning to cancel the upcoming presidential election were among the reasons for his forced removal.

## Death and legacy

No specific historical record is available about the date and circumstances of Roye's death. Varying accounts indicate that he was killed on February 11 or February 12, 1872. Another account suggests that he drowned on February 12, 1872, while trying to reach a British ship in Monrovia harbor.
The portrait of President Roye in the gallery of the Presidential Mansion in Monrovia notes his date of death as February 11, 1872.
The town of Royesville, bordering the city of Brewerville, was named after Roye. President William Tubman named the presidential yacht "The Edward J. Roye," after President Roye. The headquarters of the True Whig Party was named the Edward J. Roye Building. His portrait his featured on the front of the five-dollar banknote of the Liberian dollar.