Liberia
Liberia was a colony and protectorate of the United States before it became an independent nation. In 1816 the American Colonization Society (ACS) was formed by politicians and several prominent southern slaveholders, who wanted free people of color relocated out of the slave states. It was widely believed that the presence of free blacks in the south encouraged slaves to attempt to flee to the free states of the north. Abolitionists also supported the idea of sending free blacks to Africa, since many northerners, though opposed to slavery, resented their presence in the north, where they could be hired for lower wages and thus took jobs away from whites.
Re-settlement to the region of Africa known as the Pepper Coast began in 1822, with financial support of the ACS. The settlers were volunteers, who arrived in the region to find hostility against them from the native peoples. The colonial towns which they created suffered from raids and attacks from the indigenous peoples of the region, which often carried away survivors of attacks to slavery within Africa. Kru and Grebo raids on the new settlements led to retaliation by the settlers, in a situation not unlike that on the American frontier of the same day. The migration to the colony from the United States continued until by 1867 approximately 13,000 free blacks had been sent.
The settlers found themselves isolated from the local populations, even those not openly hostile to them, separated by differing cultures, religions, and most importantly by language. The colonists established an elite society among themselves, and developed into a group which they called Americo-Liberians, intermarrying rather than assimilating with the local population. When other groups in the United States started similar colonies on the Pepper Coast they were gradually absorbed into Liberia. The Liberian government recognized the indigenous tribes within the boundaries of the colony, and enforced Liberian law among them, but did not allow them to vote or otherwise participate in the political process.
The Americo-Liberians instead attempted to assimilate the native population within western culture, and established schools and missions for the purpose, supported by the ACS and other American organizations. In 1847 the Americo-Liberians prepared a Declaration of Independence from the United States and a written Constitution establishing the former colony as a republic. A strong trading partner with Great Britain, Liberia was recognized as an independent republic by Great Britain first, and by the United States in 1862. Liberia was the first independent republic to emerge on the African continent, and has retained its independence ever since.
Up until the Christy Investigation in 1929, compulsory unpaid labor – slavery – was practiced in Liberia by business interests using several minority groups within its borders. The practice of slavery was widespread throughout all of Africa during the colonial period, as dominant African peoples enslaved those of lesser groups. Much of the slavery was in the rubber and coffee plantations throughout the continent. A colony created by Americans to help end slavery in the United States thus allowed the practice, though not openly, well into the twentieth century. Both the president and vice-president of Liberia, Charles King and Allen Yancy respectively, resigned as a result of the Christy Investigation.
Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
“The German Colonial Empire, 1884-1919”, by W. O. Henderson, 1993
“The Scramble for Africa”, by Thomas Pakenham, 1992
“Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the coming of the Great War”, by Robert K. Massie, 1992
“Cecil Rhodes”, by John Flint, 2009
“The Rape of Ethiopia”, by A. J. Barker, 1971
“Greater France: A History of French Overseas Expansion”, by Robert Aldrich, 1996
“The Drums of Kumasi: The Story of the Ashanti Wars”, by Alan Lloyd, 1964
“Divide and Rule: The Partition of Africa, 1880-1914”, by H. L. Wessling and Arnold Pomerans, 1996
“Transformations in slavery: a History of Slavery in Africa”, by Paul E. Lovejoy, 2011