The West African country of Liberia was founded, established, colonized, and controlled by citizens of the United States, the American Colonization Society and ex-Caribbean slaves as a colony for former African American slaves and their free black descendants. By the decline of the movement, the American Colonization Society migrated over 13,000 people back to Africa.
Historians believe that many of the indigenous peoples of Liberia migrated there from the north and east between the 12th and 16th centuries AD. Portuguese explorers established contacts with people of the land later known as "Liberia" as early as 1462. They named the area Costa da Pimentia (Pepper Coast) or Grain Coast because of the abundance of melegueta pepper. In 1602 the Dutch established a trading post at Grand Cape Mount but destroyed it a year later. In 1663, the British installed trading posts on the Pepper Coast. No further known settlements by non-African colonists occurred along the Grain Coast until the arrival in 1821 of free blacks from the United States.
The country of Liberia was founded in 1821 by former slaves from the United States of America as a result of the end of the transatlantic slave trade and the efforts of the American Colonization Society (ACS). The resulting state of Liberia would become the second (after Haiti) black republic in the world at that time. Prominent Americans such as John Randolph, Daniel Webster, and Henry Clay 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 ACS was the most actively involved organization in bringing a halt to the slave trade. The ACS organization was established in 1816 to sponsor the settlement of "free persons of color" in Africa.
The ACS concerns were on a humanitarian, social and religious basis. In association with church and other antislavery groups the ACS lobbied effectively for legislation to halt the slave trade. Although the ACS did not receive direct financial aid from the United States government, it was still appointed as the custodian of re-captives under its protection by the government and had personal funding from government officials.
Some say the American Colonization Society was founded to deal with the “problem” of the growing number of free blacks in the United States by resettling them in Africa. 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. Many humanitarians strongly believed that the slave trade was a crime against humanity and a crime before God. Likewise many others looked at ending the slave trade as a means of better "civilizing" Africa which would later, better aid in the spread of Christianity. Also, many white American supporters wished to correct the injustices done to the blacks through the institution of slavery in the United States. The main economic reason behind the abolition movement was the need for new markets for surplus manufactured goods caused by the spread of the Industrial Revolution. Still, the ACS had powerful support and its colonization project gained momentum.
In 1811, an free black abolitionist named Paul Cuffee founded the Friendly Society of Sierra Leone, a cooperative black group intended to encourage “the Black Settlers of Sierra Leone, and the Natives of Africa generally, in the Cultivation of their Soil, by the Sale of their Produce.” 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. From January 1820 onward, the ACS sent ships from New York to West Africa. The first had 88 free black emigrants and three white ACS agents on board. The agents were to find an appropriate area for a settlement. Additional ACS representatives arrived in the second ACS ship Nautilus. 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.
Emancipated slaves and freeborn men and women boarding for Liberia
In December 1821, they acquired Cape Mesurado, a 36-mile-long (58 km) strip of land near present-day Monrovia, from the indigenous ruler King Peter (perhaps with some threat of force). From the beginning, the colonists were attacked by indigenous peoples whose territory this was, such as the Malinké tribes. In addition, they suffered from disease, the harsh climate, lack of food and medicine, and poor housing conditions.
Until 1835, five more colonies were started by American state colonization societies, and one by the U.S. government, all in the area of the ACS settlement. The first colony on Cape Mesurado was extended, along the coast as well as inland, sometimes by use of force against the native tribes.
These colonies held not only emancipated slaves and descendants of them, but Africans removed from slave ships by the U.S. Navy after the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade as well. In 1838 these colonies, containing up to 20,000 people, came together to create the Commonwealth of Liberia. Monrovia would be named the capital. By 1842, four of the other American state colonies were incorporated into Liberia, and one was destroyed by indigenous people. The colonists of African-American descent became known as Americo-Liberians; presently about 5 percent of the population of Liberia is descended from these settlers. Even Robert E. Lee, the Commander of the Confederate States Army freed most of his slaves and offered to pay expenses for those who wanted to go to Liberia. In November 1853, Lee's former slaves William and Rosabella Burke and their four children sailed on the Banshee, which left Baltimore with 261 emigrants. Many of the new Americo-Liberians were of mixed-race including European ancestry.
The settlers attempted to retain their education, religion and culture they had brought from the United States and for the most part did not integrate with the native societies nor did they identify with the indigenous, non-Christian peoples. It wasn't until the 1840s and 50s that the settlement populations in Liberia were dramatically increased and by the year 1870 Liberia had attracted 13,000 immigrants from the United States. After the year 1870 emigration dramatically decreased, since blacks realized that life in Liberia was hard. Approximately 60% of the immigrants at the time were emancipated slaves, many of whom had been freed or had purchased their freedom in order to migrate to Liberia.
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 the Americo-Liberians declared the independence of the Republic of Liberia from the American Colonization Society in order to establish a sovereign state and create its own laws governing commerce.
Liberia's capital, Monrovia, was named after the United States president James Monroe and its government was modeled on that of the United States, suggesting the close ties between the two countries. However it wasn't long until, in 1877, the True Whig Party monopolized political power in the country, and competition for office was stifled by the party. Although it was democratic in structure, it was not democratic in practice. Overall, the founding of Liberia, although thought by many to be a just and reasonable action for the United States to take, turned out to be a somewhat unsuccessful action, as the anticipated results never occurred.
Most prominently, the social order in Liberia was dominated by a group of Americo-Liberians from 1847 to 1940. Although descended from peoples of African origin, the ancestors of Americo-Liberians had been born in the United States for generations before emigrating to Africa; they held American cultural, religious and social values, shaped by their own heritage. Like many Americans and Europeans of the period, the Americo-Liberian held beliefs in the religious superiority of Protestant Christianity and the cultural power of European civilization over indigenous animism and culture.
The Americo-Liberians created communities and social infrastructure closely based on what they knew - American society.
“Refugees awaiting transportation to Liberia at Mr. Olivet Baptist Chapel, New York City” From, Frank Leslie's Illustrated News, April 24, 1880
They spoke English, and built churches and houses in styles resembling those they were familiar with in the southern United States. Although they never constituted more than five percent of the population of Liberia, they controlled key resources that allowed them to dominate the local native peoples: access to the ocean, modern technical skills, literacy and higher levels of education, and valuable relationships with many United States institutions, including the American government. Reflecting the system of racial segregation in the United States, the Americo-Liberians created a cultural and racial caste system with themselves at the top and indigenous Liberians at the bottom. They believed in a form of "racial equality" which meant that all residents of Liberia had the potential to become "civilized" through western-style education and conversion to Christianity. After a bloody overthrow of the Americo-Liberian régime by indigenous Liberians in 1980, a 'Redemption Council' took control of Liberia. Internal unrest, opposition to the new military regime, and governmental repression steadily grew, until in 1989 Liberia sank into outright tribal and civil war.
Though there is much history to be told about Liberia from the time it was colonized in 1821 to it's most recent devastating epidemic of Ebola in 2014, it is clear through it's early history the country didn't have the best start it could have and like America, needed and still needs time to perfect itself. Liberia, like America was an experiment of newly found freedom attempting to make roots in land outside of an oppressive system. However, it is also evident through the history of not only Liberia, but through any country you look deeper into their cultural dynamics, that every country has an established hierarchy of who is "low" and who is "on top", who is alpha and who is beta, who is prey and who is predator. This isn't even confined just to human behavior; lions, birds, monkeys, and tons of other animals will segregate and rank themselves solely based on appearance, virility, amount of partners, and size of there den or nests. It is not human nature to segregate based on race or class, it is animalistic nature.
As much as humans try to claim to be so different and above other animals, (less than 300 years ago Europeans thought Africans were not human) humans also have behavior so close to animals it can almost be replicated in other species. In my opinion, all animals have life worth and deserve to have a chance at a peaceful life, however I do believe we as humans with such great advantages ranging from understanding and applying the use of technology to things as basics as opposable thumbs, should not settle for injustice under the guise of "human nature" because it's not. Any human, regardless of skin color or country of origin, is capable of falling into this state of animalistic nature just as they are capable of pulling themselves out of it.
Sources:
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1830-1860/liberia
http://www.thenagain.info/WebChron/Africa/Liberia.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Liberia
www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ad44