The Home of the Colored Race

Magazine article

By: Anonymous

Date: January 1857

Source: "The Home of the Colored Race." Littell's Living Age 52 (1857): 306.

About the Author: The author of this short article is unknown.

INTRODUCTION

By the 1800s, the United States was starkly divided between slave and free states. In the South, slavery remained a fact of daily life, and slaves were frequently punished or killed for trying to cross the Mason-Dixon Line. But even in the free North, assimilation of freed slaves was creating tensions. With few skills and little education, free blacks frequently found themselves living in abject poverty with little hope of improvement.

Northern politicians of various political philosophies criticized the state of black affairs. Liberals denounced the deplorable living conditions of most blacks, while conservatives warned that a growing black underclass might threaten the domestic stability of the nation. Robert Finley, a minister from New Jersey, was convinced that the history of slavery in America made assimilation into American society virtually impossible for freed slaves. Consequently, Finley proposed returning freed slaves to their historical homelands. To advance this cause, he founded the American Colonization Society (ACS), a charitable organization intended to provide funds and support for returning former slaves to Africa. The Society would become a model for numerous other such organizations.

Black Americans were divided on the plan; many preferred to remain in the United States and exercise their rights as Americans, working to free the remaining slaves. Others wished to leave America and begin anew, and volunteers for the voyage to Africa were plentiful. With funding from numerous supporters and the U.S. Congress, the ACS launched its first voyage to Africa in 1816. Landing in Sierra Leone, the immigrants began constructing a settlement; within weeks, one-fourth had died of disease. In addition, the African residents of the land resisted the first settlers as well as those who arrived on later ships.

In 1821, officials of the American Colonization Society concluded that a more hospitable location was needed for the settlement. After a survey trip, the group succeeded in purchasing approximately 100 square miles (260 square kilometers) of territory along the Atlantic coast. In 1824, the primary city of Christopolis was renamed Monrovia, after U.S. President James Monroe, and the colony as a whole was christened Liberia, which means Land of Freedom. Other colonization societies formed in the United States, and the population of the region grew.

PRIMARY SOURCE

In the course of an interesting article on the commerce of Western Africa, showing its steady advance of late years, and the excellent basis it affords for a much greater increase, the New York Journal of Commerce remarks:

"Not less certain is it that emigration will follow in the footsteps of commerce; and from present indications it is not difficult to conceive that the Western coast of Africa may yet become to the free blacks of the United States as attractive as California has been to the whites."

This idea must have occurred to many persons who have devoted attention to the rise and progress of Liberia. The admirable manner in which the settlement of the country goes on; the extension of the Republican authority over large numbers of natives and a wide expanse of territory; the prosperity of agricultural industry; the order, good government, and capacity for improvement manifested, must, in the end, present such a picture as will remove all the prejudices of the free blacks in the United States. Already the number of colored persons desirous of emigrating thither exceeds the capacity of the vessels engaged to convey them. Every one who goes out and does well, sends back such tidings by letter as must induce kindred and friends to try the same experiment. All the progress and prosperity of Liberia are reflected back upon the United States, and produce such an effect upon the colored population here as to increase the emigration.—Colonization Herald.

SIGNIFICANCE

Tensions continued to simmer between the residents of the new settlement and their governing representatives from the Colonization Society, which eventually granted them much greater self-rule. In 1846, the residents of Liberia voted to become an independent nation. In 1847, the colony ratified a Declaration of Independence from the United States. The following year, a constitution was adopted and Joseph Jenkins was elected the first president.

Despite its origins among oppressed former slaves, the Republic of Liberia was surprisingly slow in recognizing the rights of native residents within its own borders. During the early 1800s, an international commission found that the nation exploited native workers, and not until 1846 were indigenous residents granted the right to vote.

Through the twentieth century, Liberia struggled to rule itself, and the struggling country frequently found itself pulled into disputes between neighboring countries. Civilian governmental control was punctuated with totalitarian rule. In 1980, Samuel Doe assassinated the sitting president and took control of the country. In 1986, a new constitution was adopted, though Doe remained in power. In 1989, Doe was ousted from power by Charles Taylor, resulting in fourteen years of civil war and an estimated 150,000 deaths. Taylor's rule ended in 2003 when he was exiled to Nigeria.

United Nations troops entered Liberia following Taylor's ouster and established a transitional government along with a comprehensive disarmament program. In 2005, new elections were held and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was chosen as the nation's new president, making her Africa's first female chief executive.

The Republic of Liberia was conceived as a new beginning for freed slaves. While fleeing the United States did liberate the immigrants from the prejudice of white Americans, it also deprived them of the benefits of the nation's educational, financial, and industrial institutions. The former slaves' lack of education ill-equipped them to found a new nation, and the nation of Liberia today far more closely resembles its war-torn neighbors on the African continent than the home country of its founders. In most measurable respects, life in Liberia remains difficult, and its citizens enjoy a far lower standard of living than African Americans in the United States.

FURTHER RESOURCES

Books

Clegg, Claude A., III. The Price of Liberty: African Americans and the Making of Liberia. Charlotte, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 2003.

McPherson, J. H. T. History of Liberia. Kieler, Mont.: Kessinger Publishing, 2004.

Pham, John-Peter. Boston Liberia: Portrait of a Failed State. New York: Reed Press, 2004.

Periodicals

Bush, Laura. "Africa's First Female President." Time 167 (2006): 54.

Lloyd, Robert. "Rebuilding the Liberian State." Current History 105 (2006): 229-233.

Wolters, Raymond. "The Travail of Liberia." Diplomatic History 30 (2006): 307-310.

Web sites

BBC News. "Country Profile: Liberia." 〈http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/country_profiles/1043500.stm〉 (accessed June 7, 2006).

The Carter Center. "There's Hope in Liberia's History: An Op-Ed by Jimmy Carter." July 13, 2003 〈http://www.cartercenter.org/doc1366.htm〉 (accessed June 7, 2006).

University of Pennsylvania. African Studies Center. "Liberia Page." 〈http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Country_Specific/Liberia.html〉 (accessed June 7, 2006).