Robert Campbell

Robert Campbell (7 May 182919 January 1884) was a Jamaican-born emigrant from the United States to Nigeria who wrote books and published a newspaper. Initially apprenticed to a printer he trained as a teacher in Spanish Town. Finding his salary insufficient in the economic turmoil of post-abolition Jamaica he emigrated to Nicaragua and Panama before settling in New York City in 1853. He found work as a printer before being employed as a science teacher and then assistant principal at the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In 1858 Campbell joined Martin R. Delany on the Niger Valley Exploring Party to look for a suitable site for the settlement of black Americans in West Africa. A site at Abeokuta (in modern-day Nigeria) was selected and the expedition returned to the United States. Campbell returned to Africa in 1862, but found that, due to the American Civil War as well as opposition from the leaders of the British Colony of Lagos and disputes between the Egba people and the British, his settlement plans had been rendered untenable. Campbell instead settled in Lagos, establishing the Anglo-African newspaper. This was opposed by the British governor, Henry Stanhope Freeman, who thought it would lead to ill feeling between different factions in the colony. The newspaper ceased in 1865 and Campbell afterwards worked to develop the colony commercially.

Early life and career Robert Campbell was born on 7 May 1829, in Kingston, Jamaica. He was described as being a "mulatto", the son of a white Scottish father and a mixed race mother. The years after Campbell's birth were turbulent in Jamaica, with economic impacts from the 1833 abolition of slavery and periodic cholera epidemics. Campbell found a position as an apprentice at a printing shop before training as a teacher at the newly established Normal School at Spanish Town. The first edition appeared on 6 June 1863, and the paper was published weekly until December 1865. The paper was reasonably successful but opposed by the British governor Henry Stanhope Freeman who attempted, unsuccessfully, to impose a tax upon it.

Later activities Campbell was active in the literary and scientific society of Lagos and from 1865 became involved in a number of businesses. He hoped to promote commercial development in Lagos but was hindered by continuous war between the tribes of the inland regions which led to blockages in trade along the rivers. Campbell was one of a number of Lagos residents who petitioned the Colonial Office to install a strong governor to exert control over the interior, suggesting Captain John Hawley Glover. Campbell died in Lagos on 19 January 1884.