Alfred Francis Russell

Alfred Francis Russell was an AmericoLiberian missionary, planter and politician. Elected as vicepresident of Liberia in 1881 under Anthony William Gardiner, he succeeded to the presidency after the latter resigned due to poor health. Russell served as tenth President of Liberia from 1883 to 1884.

Russell was born into slavery in 1817 Lexington, Kentucky, as the mixedrace, very white son of Amelie Milly Crawford, a mixedrace woman described as octoroon . Their mistress was Jane Hawkins Todd Irvine. These two slaves were the subject of gossip in Lexington, first bruited by Robert S. Todd. Robert J. Breckinridge published a pamphlet revealing the Lexington gossip that Alfred Francis Russells father was John Russell, Irvines grandson and Mary Owen Todd Russell Wickliffes son from her previous marriage. During a summer visit with his grandmother, John Russell, then a student at Princeton University, took the enslaved octoroon Milly Crawford as a lover. Their son Alfred was overwhelmingly European in ancestry and appearance he was only 116 African. In many states at the time he would have been considered legally white although born into slavery.

Source: Wikipedia