What are some interesting details about the events leading up to the formation of Liberia? What was life like for the African-American "colonists" who settled there? What about those who already lived there?
Colonists were essentially dumped onto Liberian shores and told “good luck!” as the boat sailed away. Not much in the way of provisions or support. HUGE mortality rates from disease, famine, and warfare against the natives -rates in the neighborhood of 25–50%.
The American Colonization Society, which spearheaded this effort, was aware of the appalling death rate, but kept promoting the colony anyway.
The initial Liberian concession, which was along the coast, was purchased from the native tribe at the barrel of a gun (literally: the US admiral who “negotiated” the deal pointed his pistol at the native chief to expedite the sale). So the African-American colonists and native Liberians didn’t necessarily start off on the best foot.
After the colony was more or less secure (warfare against the natives didn’t really stop until the turn of the 20th century) and developed enough to support the colonists, Liberia became, without hyperbole, the best place for African-Americans in the world to be at that time, up until the Civil Rights Movement in America finally created a free space for them at home.
It’s hard to find photographs of Americo-Liberians of this time. But from what I have found, this would appear to be a wealthy Americo-Liberian family with their servants.
In Liberia, those who were of African-American or Afro-Caribbean (a much smaller population) could pretty much do anything, be anyone. They dominated the political scene, the skilled professions, owned the land, controlled international trade. The Americo-Liberians were the top dogs.
Of the small Americo-Liberian top ethnic group, a smaller subset of them were the oligarchs of the country. The ones who, through the True Whig Party, ruled the country with an iron fist for over a century, cementing their influence with fraud, secret societies such as the Masonic Lodge, and oppression.
Liberia’s Masonic Lodge today. Historically, it was a vector of oligarchical control -few acquired a position of power in Liberia without being a member.
The intermeshed network of the True Whigs and Masonic Lodge was only open to a few Americo-Liberians; elite families among whom power and political offices rotated. Many of Liberia’s presidents, for example, were related to each other. It was the rule of a few families; an aristocratic republic, or oligarchical dictatorship.
Recently, I have read a few writings from African-Americans who went over to Liberia. They explain well why they left the USA and why they preferred Liberia to anywhere else at this time:
Writing to his former master in 1842, Washington W. McDonogh perhaps expressed this best: “I will never consent to leave [Liberia]… for this is the only place where a colored person can enjoy his liberty, for there exists no prejudice of color in this country, but every man is free and equal.”
[…]
“I know by experience the depressing influence of the white man. Such was its effect on me, that I failed to improve my mind as I might have done, if the slightest hope of future usefulness could have been indulged. But every high and noble aspiration appeared to me, in [the United States], consummate folly, and I was thus induced to be satisfied in ignorance, there being no prospect of rising in the scale of being. But how altered is my condition in [Liberia]? Here honors of which I have never dreamed have been conferred on me by my fellow-citizens, and I have been treated as an equal by gentlemen from the United States.”
[…]
“In America, we had nothing to incite us to prosper application of mind, nothing to aspire to. We read superficially, we knew superficially many tings known to our white neighbors… In Liberia we found ourselves an embryo nation, but incapable of filling many of the various important stations requiring real knowledge. Superficiality would not do. We applied ourselves to study closely and intensely and acquired in many instances, profound knowledge, that sort which gives power. Many who have thus made themselves are superior men.”
(all quotes from the book From Virginia Slave to African Statesman: Hilary Teage (1805–1853). Will update with page information later)
Many of the African-Americans who went over went into business. Merchants. Newspaper owners. Warehouse owners. Shippers. Even the occasional factory owner. Others went into politics. Ministry. Many did a combination of them all. It was the best of times. It was, especially compared to America, a haven. A paradise. A place to be free.
The native Africans had a much different story.
I do not have any quotes or first hand accounts from the native Africans on hand, which probably tells you where I’m going with this.
As noted, they weren’t exactly willing sellers of land to the African-American colonists. And as those colonists kept pouring in, they resisted fiercely. In fact, they very nearly destroyed the nearby Republic of Maryland, which forced that state’s incorporation into greater Liberia. The natives, certainly, did not go silently into bondage.
But they did not have the firepower available to the African-Americans, and they were divided by ethnicity. It is an old tale in Africa at this time.
The African-Americans saw themselves as the bringers of Christianity and Civilization to their “poor benighted lost brothers.” And Christianity and Civilization they would bring, whether the natives wanted it or not. And, while they were getting it, of course, they wouldn’t be able to do things like… vote… or hold high offices… or get into the best professions… or even live in Monrovia for most of Americo-Liberian rule.
Make no mistake, the African-Americans imposed a colonial set-up that wouldn’t look out of place anywhere in Africa. Including South Africa.
When Firestone obtained their infamous rubber plantation concessions in Liberia, it was with native Liberian slave labor that the rubber was cultivated. Only foreign pressure “ended” this practice.
There were attempts to improve the lot of the native African Liberians. One of the rivals to the True Whig Party, whose name escapes me at the moment, tried to push through bills to allow the native Liberians to vote -largely in order to weaken the grip of the True Whigs.
This failed.
As I recall, native Liberians would not get the vote until well after World War 2 -perhaps not even until the 1970s if memory serves.
Far, far too late.
Liberian Rice Riots, 1979. The beginning of the end for the Americo-Liberian regime. No one on this side of the Atlantic mourned its death. Also note: they are rioting over food, as in they aren’t getting enough. Few things sum up that dreadful regime more than this.
When I think of African-American rule over Liberia, I think two things.
First, of the huge opportunity that we had to build real ties across the Atlantic, thrown away for power and pride.
Second: that the oppressed can easily become oppressors, if given the chance.
“He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster . . . when you gaze long into the abyss the abyss also gazes into you”.
(As an aside, I am aware of at least one American Pan-Africanist who, when the topic of Liberia comes up, defends the Americo-Liberian regime. There are few people who I’ve wanted to slap upside the head with a history book more than that person. The more I learn about Americo-Liberian rule, the more depressed I get; to hear an African-American run around and defend colonialism is… disconcerting.)
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