Liberia

Liberia is a West African nation founded in 1822 by American ex-slaves and subsidized by the American Colonization Society. The circumstances surrounding Liberia’s founding reveal the conflicting motivations of Americans, black and white, who were concerned about slavery and the presence of Africans in the young republic. Some whites supported colonization because they wanted to rid the nation of African people, whom they deemed unfit to live in a democracy. Some southern slaveholders advocated the removal of free blacks, whom they considered a threat to their ability to control their slaves. Other whites were more sympathetic to the discrimination experienced by free blacks in the United States; they argued that blacks would be relieved of such racism if they were returned to Africa. Other whites believed that ex-slaves should return to Africa to bring Christianity and European civilization to the continent. All of these groups were skeptical about whether African Americans would ever be accepted by a white populace whose political ideologies were increasingly racist.

Free blacks were also conflicted about the colonization issue. Some shared the view that African Americans would never be treated fairly in the United States, and should therefore return to Africa. Others disagreed, arguing that ex-slaves should stay in the United States to fight for civil rights as citizens and demand the abolition of slavery. Many saw the colonization effort as a cynical plot devised by slave owners to secure domination of their slaves.

Amid this growing debate, the American Colonization Society (ACS) was founded in 1817. As was common practice among reform societies of the time, the ACS raised funds by selling lifetime membership. By 1820, the society had published the first issue of The African Intelligencer, a magazine designed to spread the word about colonization. Edited by aspiring missionary Jehudi Ashmun, the journal contained articles about the slave trade, the prospects for founding an African colony, and a copy of the ACS constitution. Support for the cause was meager, however, and publication ceased after the first issue. However, by 1822 the Society was able to purchase land and establish a colony on the West African coast. Ashmun traveled to the new colony that same year, becoming one of the early leaders of the repatriation effort.

By the mid-1820s, support for the ACS had grown, and emigrants began to sail for the new colony, called Liberia. Influential political figures such as Henry Clay and former President James Madison were heavily involved in the organization. Sale of lifetime memberships had increased, giving the society the funds needed to continue developing and expanding the venture. Ashmun purchased or leased additional lands along major waterways, establishing the colony as a regional power able to intimidate neighboring tribes. In an 1825 treaty, several native kings agreed (often because Ashmun threatened to use force) to cede land in return for tobacco, rum, gunpowder, and other goods. The colonists established the first Liberian town at Cape Montserado, which they renamed Monrovia after President James Monroe. Members of the ACS continued to promote settlement, sending dispatches back to the United States that told of the emigrants’ great success.

By the 1830s, colonization efforts were coming under attack by more radical reform groups working to abolish slavery. Abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison criticized the Acs for colluding with slave owners. This new school of abolitionists thought that colonization efforts were an attempt to strengthen slaveholders by removing the members of society most likely to question the slave system: free blacks. Abolitionists believed that coloniza-tionists were undermining efforts to eradicate slavery by removing slave allies and by implicitly arguing that blacks should not be part of American society. The colonization effort continued, however, as free blacks emigrated to Liberia, and the ACS maintained their financial support. The organization even managed to convince some American state legislatures to help finance the effort.

Yet by the 1840s, the ACS could no longer afford to financially support Liberia. The colony was also in political jeopardy because it was not an official colony of the U. S. government, nor was it a sovereign nation. This precarious position endangered its future, because Liberians had no way to repel a political takeover by the British. In 1846, when the U. S. government refused to claim Liberia as an official colony, ACS leaders urged a declaration of independence. Thus, in 1847 the colony became the independent nation of Liberia, with Americo-Liberians (ex-slave emigrants and their descendants) controlling the government.

In the first decades after its founding, Liberian relations with the United States were strained. Because of the worsening American controversy over slavery, the federal government did not recognize Liberia until 1862. African Americans continued to emigrate to Liberia before and after the Civil War, but never in huge numbers. By the 1870s, the American Colonization Society had helped send over about 15,000 emigrants. The nation prospered at first, but it soon experienced economic decline due to competition from European commercial interests. Conflicts between the American-Liberian elite and indigenous tribes also jeopardized political stability. These problems continue to plague the West African nation, which went on to endure civil war and rampant political corruption during the 20th century.

Further reading: Raymond Leslie Buell, Liberia: A Century of Survival, 1847—1947 (New York: Krause Reprint Company, 1969); Charles Spurgeon Johnson, Bitter Canaan: The Story of the Negro Republic (New Brunswick, N. J.: Transaction Books, 1987); Tom W. Shick Behold the Promised Land: A History of Afro-American Settler Society in Nineteenth-Century Liberia (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980).

—Eleanor H. McConnell