The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1909-10-30
OPPRESSED LIBERIA.
An Unlucky Little Nation That Has StuA
1t Out

public finds itself between the upper
and the neither millstones of aboriginal
African savagery, which it has never
been able to control, and selfishly in
terested European civilization imposed
| upon Africa in the form of colonial
establishments. When Liberia was
founded now nearly a century ago by
the optimistic advocates of colonial
tion as the solution of our own African
problem, Sierra Leone ? little British
colony Of fugitive slaves from various
places, was the only region near at
nand under European control. Few
persons then forsaw the partition OF
Africa by the whites and the coming
international struggle for spheres OF
! influence. The earliest immigrants
were sent out by the Colonization So
ciety, organized with so much hope in
1877 with Bushrod Washington as
president. and afterward patronized in
all sincerity by James Monroe. They
tried at first to find homes in Sierra
Leone. but driven forth by the suspic-
ions of the British and their black
colon1sts, they went further down the
coast to a singularly unhealthy dis
trict. Many died, some returned to the
United States and just when the col
ony was ready to give up its plan Eli
Jah Johnson, a colored man of courage
vlgor, announced that he had vainly
sought home for two years and that
having found one he now intended to
keep 1t. Johnson thus saved the COL
ony from immediate and ignominious
failure
This was in 1922 when the handful
OF colonists was at length settled up
on part of the coast region that Liberia
sent out and friends of the negro in
Maryland established hard by an in
dependent colony of their own which
was named for the state. After fric-
ton and some war Maryland" was in
corporated with Liberia and it now
constitutes one of the four counties
of the republic. At first and for TWEEN
ty-five years the Colonization society
managed the affairs of the colony from
this side of the world, and then in
lS47 1t was organized as an independ
ent republic with constitution large
ly modelled upon our own. Only col
ored landowners could vote, and there
was a property qualification for most
important Offices. The government OF
the United States was extremely eau
tious about taking any official re-
sponsibility for Liberia. and these most
important offices. The government
Of the United States was extremely
cautious about taking any official re-
sponsibility for Liberia, and thes most
important European countries recog-
nized the little republic fifteen years
before We accorded it that grace. We
did so in 1862, whereas the first pres
ident of the republic with his octoroon
wife had been received by Queen Vic
toria, Louis Napoleon and the rulers
of Holland, Belgium and Prussia in the
late '40s or early sos. The presidents
widow was still living a few years
since not far from Battersea Park in
London. Queen Victoria took gen.
uine interest in Liberia and her por-
trait is still to be seen in hundreds
Of Lberian homes. Some English phil
anthrop.sts contributed the money
with which Liberia nearly fifty years
ago bought a large area of the hinter-
land, which the British Government
afterward with little ceremony and less
show Of right snatched from the re-
public. Louis Napoleon in his days
of splendor gave Liberia small gun
boat and accoutrements for 1000 men.
This gunboat was used in helping the
colony of Maryland to coerce the saw
age natives.
Liberia at her largest, when whites
in America and Europe were watching
her experiment with sympathy and
unselfish interest, had an area of about
$4,000 square miles. Unhappily for
her, however, her coast line is import
ant strategically and in time she found
herself hemmed in between Sierra Le-
one and the French ivory coast AMI
at the back in her wide wilderness
bordered by French West Africa. Ii
IBERIA had had trouble from the begin
ming with the native wild tribes. They
are supposed to number between $780,
900 and 1000 900 souls. Some have a
strong admixture of Caucasian blood.
not Immediately of European origin
but the result of contact with Afri-
can whites from the east and north
These peoples have arts and sort OF
but they have not been
friendly to the blacks and mulattoes
from America Some peoples of the in.
terror were and still are cannibais,
while on the coast were fierce wild
tribes who refused the law Of the
newcomers. When ships were wrecked