Liberian History: Part 1

I think I have promised about 5 times that my next blog entry would be about Liberian history, and so far I have been a liar in this respect.  I have been intimidated by my promised Liberian history blog entry because I am fairly certain I will get some details wrong.  However, I get the feeling that even after living here in Liberia for a year I would still not be able to write a flawless historical record.  So, without further ado, here is a little bit about Liberian history.  I'll start with the early years and slowly work my way forward in time. 

The history of the Republic of Liberia begins, in large part, in the United States.  That's right - to discuss Liberian history, we have to start in America.

Time: Early 1820s.  America is still in  a pre-Civil War era, and slavery is still an active industry.  By this time, however, some slaves have earned their freedom through a number of different means.  How the freed black slaves will fit into the larger picture of American Society is not clear... but the American Colonization Society (ACS) is formed with an idea: let's send the freed slaves home!  The intentions behind this idea are not entirely clear.  Perhaps it was a suggestion that only had the best interests of the freed slaves in mind - sending them back to Africa could be seen as the benevolent thing to do.  Or, perhaps it was a suggestion that was intended to get the freed slaves out of the picture so that those people who were still enslaved did not see them and get any ideas about deserving their own freedom.  Whatever the motive, the ACS was founded with the task of establishing a colony back in Africa where all the freed slaves could be sent "home."

So, a ship set sail carrying a little over 80 freed slaves and 3 white ACS members.  They first landed in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, a colony established by Britain for the similar purpose of having a place to re-settle freed slaves.  The ACS did not want to settle there - they wanted their own colony.  They continued south and eventually landed on Providence Island (in present day Monrovia).

There were, however, a few problems with the ACS's brilliant plan.  First, although the freed slaves did indeed come from Africa, none of them were actually from this region.  Many were from the Congo area (further east and south).  In other words, this is like picking me up here in Liberia, telling me you're sending me home, and flying me to New Hampshire when, really, I should be going to Florida.  Second this boat of eager settlers was not arriving in an unoccupied land.  There were many people already living in the land we now call Liberia, and they were not looking to give their land away to this boat full of 80 strangers. 

It wasn't until after months of "negotiations" between the ACS and the indigenous people (the ACS basically held a gun to the local chief's head and forced him to accept some meager compensation in exchange for a large amount of resource-rich land) and eventually a battle between the settlers and the indigenous people (which the settlers won with a cannon blast) that the ACS had a piece of land to call their own.  But getting a piece of land was not the only struggle they faced; people were dying at alarming rates due to diseases like Malaria, Yellow Fever, TB, and Cholera.  In fact, the first 3 ACS members died before they could even leave the ship; it was actually a second round of ACS representatives sent over with additional freed slaves that handled the "negotiations" with the indigenous people living in the land.

The presence and efforts of the ACS, however, did not last long.  About 20 years later, in 1847, the Republic of Liberia was founded without the banner of the USA or the ACS flying over it.  Liberia was Africa's first truly free, independent republic.  And that's how Liberia began... more to come later!