Colonization - The African-American Mosaic Exhibition | Exhibitions (Library of Congress) Enlarge A Black Colonizationist, Memoir of Captain Paul Cuffee, A Man of Colour: To Which is Subjoined The Epistle of the Society of Sierra Leone in African & etc., title page. York: W. Alexander, 1812 [1817] Rare Book and Special Collections Division , Library of Congress (1) Bookmark this item: #obj0 In July 1820, the ACS published The African Intelligencer, edited by Jehudi Ashmun (1794–1828), a young teacher who hoped to become a missionary to Africa. Its thirty-two pages contained articles on the slave trade, African geography, the expedition of the Elizabeth (the ship that carried the first group of colonists to Liberia), and the ACS constitution. Upset by the expense and the lack of public support for the journal, ACS managers canceled the monthly journal after one issue. Ashmun went to Africa in 1822, where he became an early leader of the Liberian colony before dying from a fever in 1828.

This copy belonged to William Thornton, architect of the United States Capitol and a supporter of colonization. Enlarge The African Intelligencer, vol. 1, no. 1, July 1820, title page. Journal. Rare Book and Special Collections Division , Library of Congress (2) Bookmark this item: #obj1 Selling life memberships was a standard fund-raising practice of benevolent societies such as the American Colonization Society. At thirty dollars each, the memberships were a popular gift for ministers. In 1825, one of the agents who sold the certificates in New England estimated that "not less than $50,000 have in this way been poured into the treasury of the Lord." This certificate bears a facsimile signature of Henry Clay, a founder of the ACS and its strong advocate in Congress. Clay succeeded former president James Madison as president of the society, serving from 1836 to 1849. [Life Membership Certificate for American Colonization Society], ca. 1840. Certificate. American Colonization Society Papers, Manuscript Division , Library of Congress (3) Bookmark this item: #obj2 Jehudi Ashmun envisioned an American empire in Africa.

During 1825 and 1826, Ashmun took steps to lease, annex, or buy tribal lands along the coast and on major rivers leading inland. Like his predecessor Lt. Robert Stockton, who in 1821 persuaded African King Peter to sell Cape Montserado (or Mesurado) by pointing a pistol at his head, Ashmun was prepared to use force to extend the colony's territory. His aggressive actions quickly increased Liberia's power over its neighbors. In this treaty of May 1825, King Peter and other native kings agreed to sell land in return for 500 bars of tobacco, three barrels of rum, five casks of powder, five umbrellas, ten iron posts, and ten pairs of shoes, among other items. [Treaty between American Colonization Society and African Kings], May 11, 1825. Holograph. American Colonization Society Collection, Manuscript Division , Library of Congress (4) Bookmark this item: #obj3 Jehudi Ashmun envisioned an American empire in Africa.

During 1825 and 1826, Ashmun took steps to lease, annex, or buy tribal lands along the coast and on major rivers leading inland. Like his predecessor Lt. Robert Stockton, who in 1821 persuaded African King Peter to sell Cape Montserado (or Mesurado) by pointing a pistol at his head, Ashmun was prepared to use force to extend the colony's territory. His aggressive actions quickly increased Liberia's power over its neighbors. In this treaty of May 1825, King Peter and other native kings agreed to sell land in return for 500 bars of tobacco, three barrels of rum, five casks of powder, five umbrellas, ten iron posts, and ten pairs of shoes, among other items. The African Repository and Colonial Journal, vol. 1, no. 4, June 1825, p. 129. Rare Book and Special Collections Division , Library of Congress (5) Bookmark this item: #obj4 For many years the ACS tried to persuade the United States Congress to appropriate funds to send colonists to Liberia. Although Henry Clay led the campaign, it failed.

The society did, however, succeed in its appeals to some state legislatures. In 1850, Virginia set aside $30,000 annually for five years to aid and support emigration. In its Thirty-Fourth Annual Report, the society acclaimed the news as "a great Moral demonstration of the propriety and necessity of state action!" During the 1850s, the society also received several thousand dollars from the New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Maryland legislatures. [Act by State of Virginia making appropriations for removal of free persons of color to Liberia], 1850. American Colonization Society Papers, Manuscript Division , Library of Congress (7) Bookmark this item: #obj5 During the 1830s, William Lloyd Garrison's violent condemnations of colonization as a slaveholder's plot to perpetuate slavery created deep hostility between abolitionists and colonizationists. Intended to encourage emigration and answer anti-colonization propaganda, the ACS pamphlet answers questions about household items needed in Liberia, climate, education, health conditions, and other concerns about the new country.

Citing abolitionist charges that colonizationists merely wanted "to get clear of the colored people of the United States from their political and social disadvantages… to place them in a country where they may enjoy the benefits of free government… and to spread civilization, sound morals, and true religion throughout Africa." Information About Going to Liberia: Things Which Every Emigrant Ought to Know…, title page Washington: American Colonization Society, 1848. Rare Book and Special Collections Division , Library of Congress (8) Bookmark this item: #obj6 By the 1840s, Liberia had become a financial burden on the ACS. In addition, Liberia faced political threats, chiefly from Britain, because it was neither a sovereign power nor a bona fide colony of any sovereign nation. Because the United States refused to claim sovereignty over Liberia, in 1846 the ACS ordered the Liberians to proclaim their independence. This map of the newly independent country shows the dates that the various territories were acquired. Settlements were located primarily along the coast and the many rivers leading inland. Inset maps highlight important areas of the country. Republic of Liberia. Drawn under superintendence of Com. Lynch, USN, 1853.

Map. Geography and Map Division , Library of Congress (9) Bookmark this item: #obj7 Digital History Digital History Digital History ID 3537 The initial thrust of reform--moral reform--was to rescue the nation from infidelity and intemperance. A second line of reform, social or humanitarian reform, attempted to alleviate such sources of human misery as crime, cruelty, disease, and ignorance. A third line of reform, radical reform, sought national regeneration by eliminating slavery and racial and sexual discrimination. Early Antislavery Efforts As late as the 1750s, no church had discouraged its members from owning or trading in slaves. Slaves could be found in each of the 13 American colonies, and before the American Revolution, only the colony of Georgia had temporarily sought to prohibit slavery (because its founders did not want a workforce that would compete with the convicts they planned to transport from England). By the beginning of the 19th century, however, protests against slavery had become widespread. By 1804 nine states north of Maryland and Delaware had either emancipated their slaves or adopted gradual emancipation plans.

Both the United States and Britain in 1808 outlawed the African slave trade. The emancipation of slaves in the northern states and the prohibition against the African slave trade generated optimism that slavery was dying. Congress in 1787 had barred slavery from the Old Northwest, the region north of the Ohio River to the Mississippi River. The number of slaves freed by their masters had risen dramatically in the upper South during the 1780s and 1790s, and more antislavery societies had been formed in the South than in the North. At the present rate of progress, predicted one religious leader in 1791, within 50 years it will â€œbe as shameful for a man to hold a Negro slave, as to be guilty of common robbery or theft.â€� By the early 1830s, however, the development of the Cotton Kingdom proved that slavery was not on the road to extinction. Despite the end of the African slave trade, the slave population continued to grow, climbing from 1.5 million in 1820 to over 2 million a decade later.

A widespread belief that blacks and whites could not coexist and that racial separation was necessary encouraged futile efforts at deportation and overseas colonization. In 1817 a group of prominent ministers and politicians formed the American Colonization Society to resettle free blacks in West Africa, encourage planters voluntarily to emancipate their slaves, and create a group of black missionaries who would spread Christianity in Africa. During the 1820s, Congress helped fund the cost of transporting free blacks to Africa. A few blacks supported African colonization in the belief that it provided the only alternative to continued degradation and discrimination. Paul Cuffe (1759â€“1817), a Quaker sea captain who was the son of a former slave and an Indian woman, led the first experiment in colonization. In 1815 he transported 38 free blacks to the British colony of Sierra Leone, on the western coast of Africa, and devoted thousands of his own dollars to the cause of colonization. In 1822 the American Colonization Society established the colony of Liberia, in west Africa, for resettlement of free American blacks. It soon became apparent that colonization was a wholly impractical solution to the nationâ€™s slavery problem.

Each year the nationâ€™s slave population rose by roughly 50,000, but in 1830 the American Colonization Society succeeded in persuading only 259 free blacks to migrate to Liberia, bringing the total number of blacks colonized in Africa to a mere 1,400. The Rise of Abolitionist Sentiment in the North Initially, free blacks led the movement condemning colonization and northern discrimination against African Americans. As early as 1817, more than 3,000 members of Philadelphiaâ€™s black community staged a protest against colonization, at which they denounced the policy as â€œlittle more merciful than death.â€� In 1829 David Walker (1785â€“1830), the free black owner of a second-hand clothing store in Boston, issued the militant Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World. The appeal threatened insurrection and violence if calls for the abolition of slavery and improved conditions for free blacks were ignored. The next year, some 40 black delegates from 8 states held the first of a series of annual conventions denouncing slavery and calling for an end to discriminatory laws in the northern states.

The idea of abolition received impetus from William Lloyd Garrison (1805â€“1879). In 1829 the 25-year-old white Bostonian added his voice to the outcry against colonization, denouncing it as a cruel hoax designed to promote the racial purity of the northern population while doing nothing to end slavery in the South. Instead, he called for â€œimmediate emancipation.â€� By immediate emancipation, he meant the immediate and unconditional release of slaves from bondage without compensation to slaveowners. In 1831, Garrison founded The Liberator, a militant abolitionist newspaper that was the countryâ€™s first publication to demand an immediate end to slavery. On the front page of the first issue, he defiantly declared: â€œI will not equivocate--I will not excuse--I will not retreat a single inch--AND I WILL BE HEARD.â€� Incensed by Garrisonâ€™s proclamation, the state of Georgia offered a $5,000 reward to anyone who brought him to the state for trial. Within 4 years, 200 antislavery societies had appeared in the North.

In a massive propaganda campaign to proclaim the sinfulness of slavery, they distributed a million pieces of abolitionist literature and sent 20,000 tracts directly to the South. Abolitionist Arguments and Public Reaction Abolitionists attacked slavery on several grounds. Slavery was illegal because it violated the principles of natural rights to life and liberty embodied in the Declaration of Independence. Justice, said Garrison, required that the nation â€œsecure to the colored population...all the rights and privileges that belong to them as men and as Americans.â€� Slavery was sinful because slaveholders, in the words of abolitionist Theodore Weld, had usurped â€œthe prerogative of God.â€� Masters reduced a â€œGod-like beingâ€� to a manipulable â€œTHING.â€� Slavery also encouraged sexual immorality and undermined the institutions of marriage and the family. Not only did slave masters sexually abuse and exploit slave women, abolitionists charged, but in some older southern states, such as Virginia and Maryland, they bred slaves for sale to the more recently settled parts of the Deep South.

Slavery was economically retrogressive, abolitionists argued, because slaves, motivated only by fear, did not exert themselves willingly. By depriving their labor force of any incentive for performing careful and diligent work, by barring slaves from acquiring and developing productive skills, planters hindered improvements in crop and soil management. Abolitionists also charged that slavery impeded the development of towns, canals, railroads, and schools. Antislavery agitation provoked a harsh public reaction in both the North and the South. The U.S. postmaster general refused to deliver antislavery tracts to the South. In each session of Congress between 1836 and 1844 the House of Representatives adopted gag rules allowing that body automatically to table resolutions or petitions concerning the abolition of slavery. Mobs led by â€œgentlemen of property and standingâ€� attacked the homes and businesses of abolitionist merchants, destroyed abolitionist printing presses, disrupted antislavery meetings, and terrorized black neighborhoods. Crowds pelted abolitionist reformers with eggs and even stones. During antiabolitionist rioting in Philadelphia in October 1834, a white mob destroyed 45 homes in the cityâ€™s black community.

A year later, a Boston mob dragged Garrison through the streets and almost lynched him before authorities removed him to a city jail for his own safety. In 1837, the abolitionist movement acquired its first martyr when an antiabolitionist mob in Alton, Illinois, murdered Reverend Elijah Lovejoy, an editor of a militant abolitionist newspaper. Three times mobs destroyed Lovejoyâ€™s printing presses and attacked his house. When a fourth press arrived, Lovejoy armed himself and guarded the new press at the warehouse. The antiabolitionist mob set fire to the warehouse, shot Lovejoy as he fled the building, and dragged his mutilated body through the town. Division Within the Antislavery Movement Questions over strategy and tactics divided the antislavery movement. At the 1840 annual meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society in New York, abolitionists split over such questions as womenâ€™s right to participate in the administration of the organization and the advisability of nominating abolitionists as independent political candidates. Garrison won control of the organization, and his opponents promptly walked out. From this point on, no single organization could speak for abolitionism.

One group of abolitionists looked to politics as the answer to ending slavery and founded political parties for that purpose. The Liberty Party, founded in 1839 under the leadership of Arthur and Lewis Tappan, wealthy New York City businessmen, and James G. Birney, a former slaveholder, called on Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, end the interstate slave trade, and cease admitting new slave states to the Union. The party also sought the repeal of local and state â€œblack lawsâ€� in the North, which discriminated against free blacks, much as segregation laws would in the post-Reconstruction South. The Liberty Party nominated Birney for president in 1840 and again in 1844. Although it gathered fewer than 7,100 votes in its first campaign, it polled some 62,000 votes 4 years later and captured enough votes in Michigan and New York to deny Henry Clay the presidency. In 1848 antislavery Democrats and Whigs merged with the Liberty Party to form the Free Soil Party.

Unlike the Liberty Party, which was dedicated to the abolition of slavery and equal rights for African Americans, the Free Soil Party narrowed its demands to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia and the exclusion of slavery from the federal territories. The Free Soilers also wanted a homestead law to provide free land for western settlers, high tariffs to protect American industry, and federally sponsored internal improvements. Campaigning under the slogan â€œfree soil, free speech, free labor, and free men,â€� the new party polled 300,000 votes (or 10 percent) in the presidential election of 1848 and helped elect Whig candidate Zachary Taylor. Other abolitionists, led by Garrison, took a more radical direction, advocating civil disobedience and linking abolitionism to other reforms such as womenâ€™s rights, world government, and international peace. Garrison and his supporters established the New England Non-Resistance Society in 1838. Members refused to vote, to hold public office, or to bring suits in court.

In 1854 Garrison attracted notoriety by publicly burning a copy of the Constitution, which he called â€œa covenant with death and an agreement with Hellâ€� because it acknowledged the legality of slavery. African Americans played a vital role in the abolitionist movement, staging protests against segregated churches, schools, and public transportation. In New York and Pennsylvania, free blacks launched petition drives for equal voting rights. Northern blacks also had a pivotal role in the â€œunderground railroad,â€� which provided escape routes for southern slaves through the northern states and into Canada. African-American churches offered sanctuary to runaways, and black â€œvigilanceâ€� groups in cities such as New York and Detroit battled slave catchers who sought to recapture fugitive slaves. Fugitive slaves, such as William Wells Brown, Henry Bibb, and Harriet Tubman, advanced abolitionism by publicizing the horrors of slavery. Their firsthand tales of whippings and separation from spouses and children combated the notion that slaves were contented under slavery and undermined belief in racial inferiority. Tubman risked her life by making 19 trips into slave territory to free as many as 300 slaves.

Slaveholders posted a reward of $40,000 for the capture of the â€œBlack Moses.â€� Frederick Douglass was the most famous fugitive slave and black abolitionist. The son of a Maryland slave woman and an unknown white father, Douglass was separated from his mother and sent to work on a plantation when he was 6 years old. At the age of 20, in 1838, he escaped to the North using the papers of a free black sailor. In the North, Douglass became the first runaway slave to speak out against slavery. When many Northerners refused to believe that this eloquent orator could possibly have been a slave, he responded by writing an autobiography that identified his previous owners by name. Although he initially allied himself with William Lloyd Garrison, Douglass later started his own newspaper, The North Star, and supported political action against slavery. By the 1850s, many blacks had become pessimistic about defeating slavery. Some African Americans looked again to colonization as a solution. In the 15 months following passage of the federal Fugitive Slave Law in 1850, some 13,000 free blacks fled the North for Canada.

In 1854, Martin Delany (1812â€“1885), a Pittsburgh doctor who had studied medicine at Harvard, organized the National Emigration Convention to investigate possible sites for black colonization in Haiti, Central America, and West Africa. Other blacks argued in favor of violence. Black abolitionists in Ohio adopted resolutions encouraging slaves to escape and called on their fellow citizens to violate any law that â€œconflicts with reason, liberty and justice, North or South.â€� A meeting of fugitive slaves in Cazenovia, New York, declared that â€œthe State motto of Virginia, â€˜Death to Tyrants,â€™ is as well the black manâ€™s as the white manâ€™s motto.â€� By the late 1850s, a growing number of free blacks had concluded that it was just as legitimate to use violence to secure the freedom of the slaves as it had been to establish the independence of the American colonies. Over the long run, the fragmentation of the antislavery movement worked to the advantage of the cause. Henceforth, Northerners could support whichever form of antislavery best reflected their views.

Moderates could vote for political candidates with abolitionist sentiments without being accused of radical Garrisonian views or of advocating violence for redress of grievances. The American Colonization Society - Fold3 Fold3 by Kenyatta D. Berry The American Colonization Society (ACS) was formed in 1817 to send free African-Americans to Africa as an alternative to emancipation in the US. The first colonists were sent to Africa in 1820 and resided at Sierra Leone. In 1822, the Society established a colony on the west coast of Africa that, in 1847, became the independent nation of Liberia. Beginning in the 1830s, the Society was harshly attacked by abolitionists, who tried to discredit colonization as a slaveholder's scheme. View an example of such criticism, voiced by William Lloyd Garrison in 1832, in this excerpt from " Thoughts on African Colonization ." Selling life memberships was a standard fund-raising practice of benevolent societies and, at thirty dollars each, the memberships were a popular gift for ministers.

In 1825, one of the agents who sold the certificates in New England estimated that "not less than $50,000 have in this way been poured into the treasury of the Lord." In March 1825, the ACS began a quarterly, The African Repository and Colonial Journal, edited by Ralph Randolph Gurley who headed the Society until 1844. The quarterly promoted both colonization and Liberia. Among the items printed were articles about Africa, letters of praise, dispatches stressing prosperity and growth of the colony, information about emigrants, and lists of donors. By the 1840s, Liberia had become a financial burden on the American Colonization Society. In addition, Liberia faced political threats, chiefly from Britain, because it was neither a sovereign power nor a bona fide colony of any sovereign nation. Because the United States refused to claim sovereignty over Liberia, the ACS ordered the Liberians to proclaim their independence in 1846. For many years, the ACS tried to persuade the United States Congress to appropriate funds to send colonists to Liberia. Although the campaign ultimately failed, the society did succeed in its appeals to some state legislatures.

In 1850, Virginia set aside $30,000 annually for five years to aid and support emigration. During the 1850s, the Society also received several thousand dollars from the New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Maryland legislatures. By 1867, the Society had sent more than 13,000 emigrants to Liberia. After the Civil War, when many blacks wanted to go to Liberia, financial support for colonization had waned. During its later years, the Society focused on educational and missionary efforts in Liberia rather than emigration. In 1913, and at its dissolution in 1964, the Society donated its records to the Library of Congress. Henry Clay was among supporters of sending freed slaves to Liberia In Tuesday's Washington Post, an editorial urging President Bush to send peacekeepers to civil war-wracked Liberia noted that the country was "founded by freed U.S. slaves." Is that true? Not quite. Although some freed American slaves did settle there, Liberia was actually founded by the American Colonization Society, a group of white Americans—including some slaveholders—that had what certainly can be described as mixed motives.

In 1817, in Washington, D.C., the ACS established the new colony (on a tract of land in West Africa purchased from local tribes) in hopes that slaves, once emancipated, would move there. The society preferred this option to the alternative: a growing number of free black Americans demanding rights, jobs, and resources at home. Notable supporters of transporting freed blacks to Liberia included Henry Clay, Francis Scott Key, Bushrod Washington, and the architect of the U.S. Capitol, William Thornton—all slave owners. These "moderates" thought slavery was unsustainable and should eventually end but did not consider integrating slaves into society a viable option. So, the ACS encouraged slaveholders to offer freedom on the condition that those accepting it would move to Liberia at the society's expense. A number of slave owners did just that. Advertisement When the first settlers were relocated to Liberia in 1822, the plan drew immediate criticism on several fronts. Many leaders in the black community publicly attacked it, asking why free blacks should have to emigrate from the country where they, their parents, and even their grandparents were born. Meanwhile, slave owners in the South vigorously denounced the plan as an assault on their slave economy.

Abolitionist resistance to colonization grew steadily. In 1832, as the ACS began to send agents to England to raise funds for what they touted as a benevolent plan, William Lloyd Garrison revved up the opposition with a 236-page book on the evils of colonization and sent abolitionists to England to track down and counter ACS supporters. But the scheme had some fans. Slave states like Maryland and Virginia were already home to a significant number of free blacks, and whites there—still reeling from Nat Turner's 1831 rebellion, which emancipated slaves had a hand in—formed local colonization societies. Thus encouraged, Maryland legislators passed a law in 1832 that required any slave freed after that date to leave the state and specifically offered passage to a part of Liberia administered by the Maryland State Colonization Society. However, enforcement provisions lacked teeth, and many Marylanders forgot their antipathy to free blacks when they needed extra hands at harvest time. There is no evidence that any freed African-American was forcibly sent to Liberia from Maryland or anywhere else.

By the 1840s, the American Colonization Society was largely bankrupt, and the transported Liberians were demoralized by hostile local tribes, bad management, and deadly diseases. The U.S. government would not claim sovereignty over the colony, so in 1846 the ACS demanded that Liberians declare their independence. In the end, around 13,000 emigrants had sailed to Liberia. Today, vestiges of the emigration can be seen in Liberia's Maryland County, in the American-sounding names we read in the papers, and, as reported on National Public Radio, in one Liberian restaurant's offer of Maryland-style fried chicken. Milestones: 1830–1860 - Office of the Historian Milestones: 1830–1860 Founding of Liberia, 1847 The founding of Liberia in the early 1800s was motivated by the domestic politics of slavery and race in the United States as well as by U.S. foreign policy interests.

In 1816, a group of white Americans founded the American Colonization Society (ACS) to deal with the “problem” of the growing number of free blacks in the United States by resettling them in Africa. The resulting state of Liberia would become the second (after Haiti) black republic in the world at that time. Joseph Jenkins Roberts, First President of Liberia Prominent Americans such as Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John Randolph were among the best known members of ACS. Former President Thomas Jefferson publicly supported the organization’s goals, and President James Madison arranged public funding for the Society. The motives for joining the society were vast as a range of people from abolitionists to slaveholders counted themselves members. On the other hand, many abolitionists, both black and white, ultimately rejected the notion that it was impossible for the races to integrate and therefore did not support the idea of an African-American colony in Africa. Still, the ACS had powerful support and its colonization project gained momentum. In 1818 the Society sent two representatives to West Africa to find a suitable location for the colony, but they were unable to persuade local tribal leaders to sell any territory.

In 1820, 88 free black settlers and 3 society members sailed for Sierra Leone. Before departing they had signed a constitution requiring that an agent of the Society administer the settlement under U.S. laws. They found shelter on Scherbo Island off the west coast of Africa, but many died from malaria. In 1821, a U.S. Navy vessel resumed the search for a place of permanent settlement in what is now Liberia. Once again the local leaders resisted American attempts to purchase land. This time, the Navy officer in charge, Lieutenant Robert Stockton, coerced a local ruler to sell a strip of land to the Society. The Scherbo Island group moved to this new location and other blacks from the United States joined them. The local tribes continually attacked the new colony and in 1824, the settlers built fortifications for protection. In that same year, the settlement was named Liberia and its capital Monrovia, in honor of President James Monroe who had procured more U.S. Government money for the project. Lieutenant Robert Stockton Other colonization societies sponsored by individual states purchased land and sent settlers to areas nearMonrovia. Africans removed from slave ships by the U.S.

Navy after the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade were also put ashore in Liberia. In 1838 most of these settlements, with up to 20,000 people, combined into one organization. The settlers attempted to retain the culture they had brought from the United States and for the most part did not integrate with the native societies. Today, about 5 percent of the population of Liberia is descended from these settlers. The U.S. Government had provided Liberia some financial support, but Washington expected Monrovia to move toward self-sufficiency. Commerce was the first economic sector to grow in the colony. However, French and British traders continually encroached upon Liberian territory. As it was not a sovereign state, it was hard-pressed to defend its economic interests. The U.S. Government lent some diplomatic support, but Britain and France had territories in West Africa and were better poised to act. As a result, in 1847, Liberia declared independence from the American Colonization Society in order to establish a sovereign state and create its own laws governing commerce.

Despite protests by the affected British companies, London was the first to extend recognition to the new republic, signing a treaty of commerce and friendship with Monrovia in 1848. Because of fears of the impact this might have on the issue of slavery in the United States, Washington did not recognize the nation it had played a role in creating. In the meantime, a mass exodus of African-Americans to Liberia never materialized. Though President Abraham Lincoln was open to promoting the idea, several abolitionists in his cabinet opposed it, some for moral considerations and others for the more practical reason of retaining sufficient labor and military forces for the future. The United States finally established diplomatic relations with Liberia in 1862, and continued to maintain strong ties until the 1990s. Liberia: History Liberia History Founding to 1980 Liberia was founded in 1821, when officials of the American Colonization Society were granted possession of Cape Mesurado by local De chiefs for the settlement of freed American slaves. African-American immigrants were landed in 1822, the first of some 15,000 to settle in Liberia.

The survival of the colony during its early years was due primarily to the work of Jehudi Ashmun , one of the society's agents. In 1847, primarily due to British pressures, the colony was declared an independent republic. The Americo-Liberian minority controlled the country's politics, and new immigration virtually came to an end with the American Civil War. Liberia was involved in efforts to end the W African slave trade. Attempts to modernize the economy led to a rising foreign debt in 1871, which the republic had serious difficulty repaying. The debt problem and constitutional issues led to the overthrow of the government in 1871. Conflicts over territorial claims resulted in the loss of large areas of land to Britain and France in 1885, 1892, and 1919. However, rivalries between the Europeans colonizing West Africa and the interest of the United States helped preserve Liberian independence during this period. Nevertheless, the decline of Liberia's exports and its inability to pay its debts resulted in a large measure of foreign interference. In 1909 the government was bankrupt, and a series of international loans were floated.

Firestone leased large areas for rubber production in 1926. In 1930 scandals broke out over the exportation of forced labor from Liberia, and a League of Nations investigation upheld the charges that slave trading had gone on with the connivance of the government. President C. B. D. King and his associates resigned, and international control of the republic was proposed. Under the leadership of presidents Edwin Barclay (1930–44) and William V. S. Tubman (1944–71), however, Liberia avoided such control. Under Tubman, new policies to open the country to international investment and to allow the indigenous peoples a greater say in Liberian affairs were undertaken. The country's mineral wealth, particularly iron ore, began to be exploited, and there was a gradual improvement of roads, schools, and health standards. Upon Tubman's death in 1971, Vice President W. R. Tolbert took charge, and in 1972 he was elected to the presidency. Although Tolbert cultivated a democratic climate and favorable relations abroad, an organized opposition emerged early in his regime, some of it from Liberian students living in the United States.

In 1979, a government proposal to increase the price of rice produced widespread violence. The Doe Regime and Return to Civilian Rule In 1980, Tolbert was assassinated in a coup led by Master Sergeant Samuel K. Doe . Pledging a return to civilian rule in 1981, the government unleashed a campaign to subdue opposition. In 1984 the military government instituted a series of constitutional reforms that included shortening the presidential term and outlawing the formation of a one-party state. Doe became Liberia's first indigenous president (by a fraudulent election) in 1985. The Doe government was infamous for corruption and human-rights abuses; it also became the target of numerous coup attempts. Thousands of refugees fled to Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire during this period. Late in 1989, Liberia was invaded from Côte d'Ivoire by rebel forces of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), led by Charles Taylor , who proclaimed himself president. The United States sent troops to the area when the NPFL threatened to take foreign hostages.

Doe was assassinated in 1990 by another group of rebels led by Prince Yormie Johnson, who also sought the presidency. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) intervened to negotiate a peace settlement among the two rebel groups and the government. ECOWAS also sent a Nigerian-led West African peacekeeping force to Monrovia and installed an interim government led by Amos Sawyer. Taylor's forces, with military aid from Libya and Burkina Faso, began a siege of Monrovia in 1992 and engaged in fighting with ECOWAS forces. A number of cease-fires were established in 1993 and 1994, but clashes between factions persisted. In Aug., 1995, a new peace accord was signed in Abuja, Nigeria, that provided for an interim government headed by Wilton Sankawulo, with national elections to be held late in 1996. In Apr., 1996, fierce factional fighting resumed in the capital; however, disarmament was begun later that year, and the war formally came to an end in 1997.

It is estimated that between 150,000 and 200,000 lives were lost in the civil strife, with hundreds of thousands of refugees having fled the country. Multiparty presidential and legislative elections held in July, 1997, brought Charles Taylor to power. Under Taylor, the country remained economically devastated while he and his family enriched themselves by looting Liberia's resources. In the late 1990s, Liberia was accused of supplying troops to support rebel forces in Sierra Leone's civil war. Taylor, a long-time ally of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone, had supplied the rebels with arms in exchange for diamonds. In 2000 the United Nations placed an 18-month ban on the international sale of the diamonds in an attempted to undermine the RUF, and in May of the following year it also imposed sanctions on Liberia. In mid-2001 fighting erupted in N Liberia between anti-Taylor rebels and government forces.

The fighting intensified during the following year, and the rebels continued to expand the war into other regions of Liberia in 2003; that year the United Nations also placed an arms embargo (2003–9, modified in 2006 to allow the equipping of the military and police) on Liberia. By mid-2003 the rebels controlled roughly two thirds of the country and were threatening to seize Monrovia, leading to calls for Taylor to step down and for the United States, as a nation with historical ties to Liberia, to send peacekeeping forces. In August, Taylor resigned and went into exile; he was succeeded temporarily by his vice president, Moses Blah. A peace agreement was signed with the two rebel groups, and several thousand West African peacekeepers, supported temporarily by an offshore U.S. force, arrived. In Oct., 2003, the West African force was placed under UN command and was reinforced with troops from other nations; businessman Gyude Bryant became president of a new power-sharing government. Despite the accord with the rebels, fighting initially continued in parts of the country; tensions among the factions in the national unity government also threatened the peace.

By the end of 2004, however, more than 100,000 Liberian fighters had been disarmed, the former government and rebel forces had agreed not to rearm, and the disarmament program was ended. In June, 2004, a program to reintegrate the fighters into society began, but the funds proved inadequate by year's end. In light of the progress made President Bryant requested an end to the UN embargo on Liberian diamonds and timber, but the Security Council postponed such a move until the peace was more secure. Bryant's government was hindered by corruption and a lack of authority in much of Liberia, but the peace enabled to the economy recover somewhat in 2004. In the presidential election in the fall of 2004 former soccer star George Weah won the first round with 28% of the vote, but lost the runoff in November to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf , a politician and former World Bank official who received nearly 60% of the second round votes. Weah charged that the runoff had been rigged, leading to street protests.

Most observers regarded the election as having been free and fair, and Weah subseqently dropped his challenge of the vote. Sirleaf became the first woman to be elected president of an African nation. At the same time a new national legislature was also elected, with no party securing a controlling position. Sirleaf, under international pressure, requested in Mar., 2006, that Nigeria extradite Charles Taylor, who was then brought before an international tribunal in Sierra Leone to face war crimes charges arising from events during the Sierra Leone civil war (his trial was later transferred to The Hague for security purposes; he was convicted of war crimes in 2012). In June, 2006, the United Nations ended its embargo on Liberian timber, but continued its diamond embargo until an effective certificate of origin program was established; the diamond embargo was finally lifted in Apr., 2007. In Mar., 2007, former interim president Bryant was arrested and charged with having embezzled government funds while in office.

The Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which had conducted a four-year investigation of the nation's civil strife, issued its report in July, 2009; it recommended that the president (who at originally supported Charles Taylor) and many other senior politicians be banned from politics for 30 years. In the 2011 presidential election, Sirleaf was reelected after Winston Tubman, her opponent in the November runoff, withdrew and called for a boycott. He asserted that the poll was rigged, but his claim was not backed by foreign observers or the supreme court, and the third place finisher had thrown his support to Sirleaf. Government corruption remains a significant problem in Liberia. Sections in this article: Liberia: Maps, History, Geography, Government, Culture, Facts, Guide & Travel/Holidays/Cities Ebola Outbreak Kills Hundreds Geography Lying on the Atlantic in the southern part of West Africa, Liberia is bordered by Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Côte d'Ivoire. It is comparable in size to Tennessee. Most of the country is a plateau covered by dense tropical forests, which thrive under an annual rainfall of about 160 in. a year. Government Republic.

History Africa's first republic, Liberia was founded in 1822 as a result of the efforts of the American Colonization Society to settle freed American slaves in West Africa. The society contended that the emigration of blacks to Africa was an answer to the problem of slavery and the incompatibility of the races. Over the course of forty years, about 12,000 slaves were voluntarily relocated. Originally called Monrovia, the colony became the Free and Independent Republic of Liberia in 1847. The English-speaking Americo-Liberians, descendants of former American slaves, make up only 5% of the population, but have historically dominated the intellectual and ruling class. Liberia's indigenous population is composed of 16 different ethnic groups. The government of Africa's first republic was modeled after that of the United States, and Joseph Jenkins Roberts of Virginia was elected the first president. Ironically, Liberia's constitution denied indigenous Liberians equal to the lighter-skinned American immigrants and their descendants.

After 1920, considerable progress was made toward opening up the interior of the country, a process that facilitated by the 1951 establishment of a 43-mile (69-km) railroad to the Bomi Hills from Monrovia. In July 1971, while serving his sixth term as president, William V. S. Tubman died following surgery and was succeeded by his longtime associate, Vice President William R. Tolbert, Jr. Liberia - Colonization Period, 1820-1915 Liberia - Colonization Period, 1820-1915 Henry Adams (1843 - d.) Henry Adams was a Louisiana leader who advocated the emigration of southern freed blacks to Liberia after emancipation. Born a slave in Newton County, Georgia on March 16, 1843, Henry Adams was origi... Liberia Listeni/laɪˈbɪəriə/, Cape Mesurado, Grain Coast, Pepper Coast, (Little America) or (LIB), commonly and officially referred to as the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast.

Liberia means "Land of the Free." It is bordered by Sierra Leone to its west, Guinea to its north and Ivory Coast to its east. It covers an area of 111,369 square kilometres (43,000 sq mi) and is home to 4,503,000 people.[3] English is the official language but only 15% of Liberians speak English[citation needed] and over 20 indigenous languages are spoken. Forests on the coastline are composed mostly of salt-tolerant mangrove trees while the more sparsely populated inland has forests opening onto a plateau of drier grasslands. The climate is equatorial, with significant rainfall during the May–October rainy season and harsh harmattan winds the remainder of the year. Liberia possesses about forty percent of the remaining Upper Guinean rainforest. The Republic of Liberia, formerly a colony of the American Colonization Society (ACS) declared its independence on July 26, 1847. The United States finally accepted and recognized Liberia's Independence on February 5, 1862.

Liberia was the first African nation to gain its independence, although it was not the only independent state in Africa at the time. Liberia was founded and established as a homeland for freed African-American and ex-Caribbean slaves who came from the Caribbean islands and the United States with the help and support from the American Colonization Society. Liberia is Africa's oldest democratic republic and the second oldest black republic in the world after Haiti. Liberia is unique among African countries because it was the only African nation that was colonized and controlled by freed African-American and ex-Caribbean slaves as a free state and a homeland to live. Liberia and Ethiopia were the only two African countries during the 19th century conquest of Africa that were not controlled or colonized by European powers. Liberia—which means "Land of the Free"—originated from the freed African-American and ex-Caribbean slaves who established Liberia as a free state. During the colonial era, Liberia was presumed a protectorate of the United States. The Liberian constitution and flag was modeled after the Constitution of the United States and the American flag.

The Liberian capital city of Monrovia was named after James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States and a prominent supporter of the American Colonization Society. Monrovia is one of two capital cities in the world that were named after a former American president, the other being Washington, DC named after George Washington the first president of the United States. In January 3, 1848 Joseph Jenkins Roberts, an African-American, was elected and became Liberia's first Black American president.[7] The American Colonization Society was founded in December 21, 1816 by American Robert Finley to return freed African-American to Africa. In 1820, the first former American slaves arrived at the British colony of Sierra Leone from the United States and in 1821 the American Colonization Society founded the colony of Liberia as a homeland for freed African-American and ex-Caribbean slaves to live .[7] The American Colonization Society came under attack from American abolitionists, who charged that the removal of freed slaves from the United States strengthened the institution of slavery.

In addition, most Americans of African descent living in the United States were not enthusiastic to abandon their native lands in the United States for the harsh West African coast. Nevertheless, between January 7, 1822 and the American Civil War, over 15,000 African-American and 3,198 ex-Caribbean slaves from the United States and Caribbean islands settled in Liberia. Independence was granted by the American Colonization Society on July 26, 1847 and on February 5, 1862 the United States accepted and recognized Liberia's Independence.[7] Liberia aided Britain in its efforts to end the illegal West African slave trade. Liberia was the only African nation on the African continent that was a colony and protectorate for the United States. Liberia was founded, colonized, established and controlled by the American Colonization Society. The American Colonization Society was a private organization which sent freed African-American and ex-Caribbean slaves as settlers from the United States and the Caribbean islands to Liberia to live a better life, based on self governance, equal opportunity and freedom.

Liberia was presumed a protectorate of the United States from January 7, 1822 until the Liberian Declaration of Independence on July 26, 1847. With the backing and support from the United States, Liberia kept its independence during the colonial era and Liberia was never colonized or controlled by European powers making Liberia the oldest republic nation on the African continent.[7] In 1822, the American Colonization Society began sending African American volunteers to the Pepper Coast to establish a colony for freed African Americans. By 1867, the ACS had assisted in the movement of more than 13,000 Americans to Liberia.[12] These free African Americans came to identify themselves as Americo-Liberian, developing a cultural tradition infused with American notions of political republicanism.[13] The ACS, a private organization supported by prominent American politicians such as Abraham Lincoln, Henry Clay, and James Monroe, believed repatriation was preferable to emancipation of slaves.[14] Similar organizations established colonies in Mississippi-in-Africa and the Republic of Maryland, which were later annexed by Liberia.

On July 26, 1847, the settlers issued a Declaration of Independence and promulgated a constitution, which, based on the political principles denoted in the United States Constitution, created the independent Republic of Liberia.[15][16] The leadership of the new nation consisted largely of the Americo-Liberians.

The 1865 Ports of Entry Act prohibited foreign commerce with the inland tribes, to encourage the growth of civilised values.[15] In 1877, the Americo-Liberian True Whig Party was the most powerful political power in the country.[17] Competition for office was usually contained within the party, whose nomination virtually ensured election.[17] Pressure from the United Kingdom and France led to a loss of Liberia's claims to extensive territories, which were annexed by adjoining countries.[18] Economic development was hindered by the low level of civilization in the country, as evidenced by both the decline of production of Liberian goods in the late 19th century and by poor government finances causing indebtedness on a series of international loans.[19] In Liberia's early years, the Americo-Liberian settlers periodically encountered hostile and sometimes violent contact with tribal Africans in the bush who would raid and rob the costal settlements. Tribesmen were thus excluded from birthright citizenship until 1904.[20] Henry Adams dropped out of sight in 1884. The efforts of Adams and the Colonization Council were not unrewarded.

Over the next three decades, more than 11,000 southern blacks settled in Liberia. It is unclear if Henry Adams was among them. 20th century Liberia Colony Started The Colony The American Colonization Society was founded in Washington in 1816. The purpose of the society was to encourage the emigration of African Americans back to Africa. Among the founders of the society were Henry Clay, Francis Scott Key and Bushnod Washington. In 1821 the society successfully founded the African colony of Liberia. The initial settlement was on Cap Mesurado. The colony was led by Jehudi Ashmun. The colony became the Republic of Liberia in 1847. A total of 20,000 African Americans emigrated Liberia. Many Americans at the turn of the century believed that slavery was not sustainable and would either die of its own volition or be forced to end. Many of those same people, however, did not believe the slaves could or should be absorbed in American society. Their solution was to find a way to repatriate former slaves to the continent they came from– Africa.

The American Colonization Society was founded on December 16th 1816, at a meeting in Washington attended by Henry Clay, John Randolph, Richard Brand Lee and Rev Robert Finley. Its goal was to take free blacks back to Africa and to establish a colony for them to settle. The first President of the society, Bushrod Washington, was a Supreme Court Justice. Many leading politicians from both the North and the South supported the society. One of the key supporters of the plan was President Monroe. He convinced the Congress to appropriate $100,000 for the project. In January 1820, the Elizabeth, the first ship sailed from New York carrying three agents of the A. C.S. and 88 emigrants. The ship arrived in Africa at Freetown, Sierra Leone. It then sailed south, (to what is now the northern coast of Liberia), where they attempted to establish a settlement. In the first three weeks, the three representatives of the ACS and 22 emigrants died of yellow fever. The rest of the prospective settlers returned to Freetown to await the arrival of the next ship. An additional ship was sent and with some military help.

They were able to buy land on Measured Bay and establish a settlement. Over the next few years the settlement grew, despite opposition from local tribes. In its first decade of operation A. C.S. brought 2,628 African Americans to the colony. The US government also brought any slaves freed to the colony, by intercepting the slave shops. The A. C.S. continued to support the colony. In 1847 Liberia declared itself independent. The role of A. C.S. in history remains controversial to this day. From the time it was established, many abolitionists opposed the organization, stating it was just a tool for maintaining slavery. Others stated it was inherently racist, as its goal was to remove Blacks from the United States and return them to Africa. On the other hand, many Black abolitionists supported the society and its successful transport of 13,000 African-Americans to Africa, where they established a mostly successful colony-nation: Liberia. About American history and world history can be found at historycental- History's home on the web. Explore our complete time lines of major events in American history as well as World History. Research our special sections on diverse subjects ranging from presidential elections to naval history.

Whatever aspect of history you wish learn about, you will find it at Historycentral.com Facebook A Brief History of Liberia 1822-1991 A Brief History of Liberia 1822-1991 A short history of Liberia written by a visitor to the country during the 1991 civil war. It was intended to be background for a feature in Black Flag that never happened. It probably needs improving, especially on the responses of the people who lived there to their role as supplier of raw materials to the west, but is at least a start. Liberia The current civil war in Liberia, which recently cost the life of Samuel Doe, the President since a coup in the early 80s, has its roots in the founding of a colony for former slaves in 1822. In the beginning of the 18th century, the tide of opinion in America and elsewhere was turning against slavery. However, the whites were fearful of a slave revolt led by newly emancipated blacks. To this end, the American Colonization Society was founded in 1816 and two of its officials visited the Grain Coast of Africa with two US goverment agents.

In 1821 an agreement was signed between the Society and local chiefs granting the Society possession of Cape Mesurado. The first freed American slaves landed in 1822, shortly followed by Jehudi Ashmun, a white American who founded the government and the digest of laws of Liberia. From 1841, the Governor was a free-born man, one of whose great-grandparents was black, Joseph Jenkins Roberts. At the bidding of the American Colonization Society, he proclaimed Liberia a free republic in 1847. A Constitution was drawn up along the lines of the United States'. However, attempts to found a state based upon some 3000 settlers proved difficult. Some coastal tribes became Protestants and learned English, but most of the indigenous Africans retained their traditional religion and language. Even the slave trade continued illicitly from Liberian ports, but this was ended by the British Navy in the 1850s. In 1919 Liberia transferred 2000 square miles of inland territory that it had claimed to France, because it could not control it. In fact the authorities could not exercise any control past about 20 miles inland.

Intervention by the 'Great Powers', and particularly America, has since been a constant in the history of Liberia. In 1912, a loan of $1.7 million was secured by giving control over Customs to the US and three European powers. A Frontier Police force was organized under the command of US officers. In the 1920s, the Firestone Rubber Company obtained a concession of 1 million hectares for rubber growing in Liberia. Following a slavery scandal in 1931, the then President and Vice President resigned, and the new President appealed to the League of Nations for financial aid. After three years of negotiation, which included the suspension of diplomatic relations with the US and Britain, an 'agreement' was reached along the lines suggested by the League, which were beneficial to Firestone. Liberia was strategically very important during the Second World War as the best source of latex rubber, and in 1942 signed a Defence Pact with the US. This commenced a period of strategic road building and an airport was also built. Liberia declared war on Germany and Japan in 1944, and it was also during the war that William V.S.Tubman was elected President.

The country has remained dominated by the United States ever since. The chief exports are rubber (from American owned plantations) and iron ore (mined by American companies). It is also strategically very important, acting as the CIA's foothold in Africa, and there is a powerful tracking station there. Socially, the ruling elite was at first drawn from the American settlers, and other groups who settled at the country' foundation (which included several thousand Congolese en route to the Americas on slave ships). However, as is typical with capitalism, it became the case that any Liberian with wealth was regarded as 'Americo-Liberian' or 'Congo'. Tubman died in 1970 ,and was succeeded by William Tolbert, another Americo-Liberian, although he was half-Kpelle. Throughout this period, the government was totally corrupt, as would be expected from any bureaucracy. However, the seventies saw a depression in the world price of rubber, and by 1980 Tolbert began to respond to the Libyan and Cuban offers.

The Libyans were about to start work on a low-cost housing project in Monrovia when Samuel Doe, a master sergeant in the arny, carried out a coup. The CIA are suspected to be behind the coup, and given the extent of aid to Liberia between 1980-5 ($490 milion), this seems likely. However, despite all the promises the corruption and inefficiency remained. Millions were siphoned off, and the country's infrastructure decayed. Doe promised elections, and when he was re-elected, a former ally of his, Thomas Quiwonk attempted a coup in November 1986. Doe replied by sending his Israeli trained army into northeast Liberia, where Quiwonk - a member of the Gio tribe, had his support. Hundreds of Gios were killed in the retaliatory raids. Doe began to recruit a large number of Kranhs into the Army and bureaucracy, which had previously been multi-ethnic. By 1989, there was a full raging civil war, very much along tribal lines, with the respective armies of Doe, Prince Johnson and Charles Taylor slugging it out, and the ordinary Liberian getting caught in the middle.

The United States' role in this has been equivocal, especially as they're partly to blame. Marines have been deployed, but only to 'protect American citizens and property'. However, American troops were used against Doe's private residency, and helicopter gunships blew the building apart. The other nations of West Africa have intervened militarily, as much because of the destabilizing influence of the civil war on the region as anything else. However, their motives are not as pure or their actions as blameless as they pretend. When Doe surrendered to the Peacekeeping Force, they handed him over to Taylor's men. He was knee-capped, and died a few hours later. Given the arbitrary boundaries these countries have inherited from the age of imperialism, tribal conflict of a similar type is a real danger in most African countries. Monrovia is now completely devastated, with thousands starving, and thousands more refugees streaming over the border into neighbouring countries, who are hardly in a position to help them. And the ruling class continues to play its games against this bloody back-drop. The eventual victor in this costly game will inherit only the ashes.

Question: Which country was established in 1822 by the American Colonization Society (A.C.S.)?
Answer: Liberia