This article lists the agents and governors of Liberia , consisting of fourteen agents and two governors of the American Colonization Society from 1822 until Liberian independence in 1847. The last governor, Joseph Jenkins Roberts, also served as the first President of Liberia of Liberia after independence was gained.
The colors indicate the race of each agent or governor.
† Died in office
| No. | Portrait | Name (Birth–Death) | Term of office | Race | Title | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Took office | Left office | Time in office | |||||
| Cape Mesurado Colony | |||||||
| 1 |  | Eli Ayers (1778–1822) | 15 December 1821 | 25 April 1822 [†] | 131 days | White | Colonial Agent |
| 2 | | Frederick James Acting Colonial Agent | 25 April 1822 | 4 June 1822 | 40 days | Black | |
| 3 | | Elijah Johnson (1789–1849) Acting Colonial Agent | 4 June 1822 | 8 August 1822 | 65 days | Black | |
| 4 |  | Jehudi Ashmun (1794–1828) Acting Colonial Agent | 8 August 1822 | 2 April 1823 | 237 days | White | |
| (3) | | Elijah Johnson (1789–1849) Acting Colonial Agent | 2 April 1823 | 14 August 1823 | 134 days | Black | |
| (4) | | Jehudi Ashmun (1794–1828) Acting Colonial Agent | 14 August 1823 | 15 August 1824 | 1 year, 1 day | White | |
| Colony of Liberia | |||||||
| (4) | | Jehudi Ashmun (1794–1828) | 15 August 1824 | 26 March 1828 | 3 years, 224 days | White | Colonial Agent |
| 5 |  | Lott Cary (vice-agent) (1780–1828) | 26 March 1828 | 8 November 1828 | 227 days | Black | |
| 6 | | Colston Waring (vice-agent) | 8 November 1828 | 22 December 1828 | 44 days | Black | |
| 7 | | Richard Randall (1796–1829) | 22 December 1828 | 19 April 1829 [†] | 118 days | White | |
| 8 | | Joseph Mechlin Jr. (unknown–1839) | 19 April 1829 | 27 February 1830 | 314 days | White | |
| 9 | | John Anderson | 27 February 1830 | 12 April 1830 | 44 days | White | |
| 10 | | Anthony D. Williams (vice-agent) (1799–1860) | 13 April 1830 | 4 December 1830 | 235 days | Black | |
| (8) | | Joseph Mechlin Jr. (unknown–1839) | 4 December 1830 | 24 September 1833 | 2 years, 293 days | White | |
| 11 | | George McGill (vice-agent) | 24 September 1833 | 1 January 1834 | 99 days | Black | |
| 12 | | John B. Pinney (1806–1882) | 1 January 1834 | 10 May 1835 | 1 year, 130 days | White | |
| 13 | | Nathaniel Brander (vice-agent) (1796–unknown) | 10 May 1835 | 12 August 1835 | 94 days | Black | |
| 14 | | Ezekiel Skinner (1777–1885) | 12 August 1835 | 25 September 1836 | 1 year, 63 days | White | |
| (10) | | Anthony D. Williams (vice-agent then lieutenant governor) (1799–1860) | 25 September 1836 | 1 April 1839 | 2 years, 189 days | Black | |
| Commonwealth of Liberia | |||||||
| 1 |  | Thomas Buchanan (1808–1841) | 1 April 1839 | 3 September 1841 [†] | 2 years, 154 days | White | Governor |
| 2 |  | Joseph Jenkins Roberts [A] (1809–1876) | 3 September 1841 | 3 January 1848 | 6 years, 121 days | Black | |
Liberia is a country in West Africa founded by free people of color from the United States. The emigration of African Americans, both freeborn and recently emancipated, was funded and organized by the American Colonization Society (ACS). The mortality rate of these settlers was the highest among settlements reported with modern recordkeeping. Of the 4,571 emigrants who arrived in Liberia between 1820 and 1843, only 1,819 survived (39.8%).
The flag of Liberia or the Liberian flag, sometimes called the Lone Star, bears a close resemblance to the flag of the United States, representing Liberia's founding by former black slaves from the United States and the Caribbean. They are both part of the stars and stripes flag family.
The president of the Republic of Liberia is the head of state and government of Liberia. The president serves as the leader of the executive branch and as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Liberia.
William Richard Tolbert Jr. was a Liberian politician who served as the 20th president of Liberia from 1971 until his assassination in 1980.
Joseph Jenkins Roberts was an African-American merchant who emigrated to Liberia in 1829, where he became a politician. Elected as the first (1848–1856) and seventh (1872–1876) president of Liberia after independence, he was the first man of African descent to govern the country, serving previously as governor from 1841 to 1848. He later returned to office following the 1871 Liberian coup d'état. Born free in Norfolk, Virginia, Roberts emigrated as a young man with his mother, siblings, wife, and child to the young West African colony. He opened a trading firm in Monrovia and later engaged in politics.
Maryland County is a county in the southeastern portion of Liberia. One of 15 counties that comprise the first-level of administrative division in the nation, it has two districts. Harper serves as the capital with the area of the county measuring 2,297 square kilometres (887 sq mi). As of the 2008 Census, it had a population of 136,404, making it the seventh most populous county in Liberia.
Harper, situated on Cape Palmas, is the capital of Maryland County in Liberia. It is a coastal town situated between the Atlantic Ocean and the Hoffman River. Harper is Liberia's 11th largest town, with a population of 17,837.
Daniel Bashiel Warner served as the third president of Liberia from 1864 to 1868. Prior to this, he served as the third Secretary of State in the cabinet of Joseph Jenkins Roberts from 1854 to 1856 and the fifth vice president of Liberia under President Stephen Allen Benson from 1860 to 1864.
The Republic of Maryland was a country in West Africa that existed from 1834 to 1857, when it was merged into what is now Liberia. The area was first settled in 1834 by freed African-American slaves and freeborn African Americans primarily from the U.S. state of Maryland, under the auspices of the Maryland State Colonization Society.
Stephen Allen Benson was a Liberian politician who served as the second president of Liberia from 1856 to 1864. Prior to that, he served as the third vice president of Liberia from 1854 to 1856 under President Joseph Jenkins Roberts. Born in the United States, Benson was the first president to have lived in Liberia since childhood, having arrived with his family in 1822.
Mississippi-in-Africa was a colony on the Pepper Coast founded in the 1830s by the Mississippi Colonization Society of the United States and settled by American free people of color, many of them former slaves. In the late 1840s, some 300 former slaves from Prospect Hill Plantation and other Isaac Ross properties in Jefferson County, Mississippi, were the largest single group of emigrants to the new colony. Ross had freed the slaves in his will and provided for his plantation to be sold to pay for their transportation and initial costs.
Hilary Teague, sometimes written as Hilary Teage, was a Liberian merchant, journalist, and politician in the early years of the West African nation of Liberia. A native of the state of Virginia in the United States, he was known for his oratory skills and was prominent in early Liberian colonial politics. A leading advocate for Liberian independence from the American Colonization Society, he drafted the Liberian Declaration of Independence in 1847, serving as both a senator and the first Secretary of State for the new nation in the years that followed.
The Maryland State Colonization Society was the Maryland branch of the American Colonization Society, an organization founded in 1816 with the purpose of returning free African Americans to what many Southerners considered greater freedom in Africa. The ACS helped to found the colony of Liberia in 1821–22, as a place for freedmen. The Maryland State Colonization Society was responsible for founding the Republic of Maryland in West Africa, a short lived independent state that in 1857 was annexed by Liberia. The goal of the society was "to be a remedy for slavery", such that "slavery would cease in the state by the full consent of those interested", but this end was never achieved, and it would take the outbreak of the Civil War to bring slavery to an end in Maryland.
An independence referendum was held in Liberia on 27 October 1846. The result was 52% in favor, with independence being declared on 26 July 1847.
Nathaniel Brander (1796–?) was an Americo-Liberian politician and jurist who served as the first vice president of Liberia from 1848 to 1850 under President Joseph Jenkins Roberts.
The 1980 Liberian coup d'état happened on April 12, 1980, when President William Tolbert was overthrown and murdered in a violent coup. The coup was staged by an indigenous Liberian faction of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) under the command of Master Sergeant Samuel Doe. Following a period of transition, Doe ruled Liberia throughout the 1980s until his murder in 1990 during the First Liberian Civil War.
The Colony of Liberia, later the Commonwealth of Liberia, was a private colony of the American Colonization Society (ACS) beginning in 1822. It became an independent nation—the Republic of Liberia—after declaring independence in 1847.
Samuel Ford McGill was a Liberian physician and politician who served as governor of Maryland in Liberia from 1851 to 1854. Born free in Baltimore, Maryland, he emigrated to Liberia in 1826.
Liberia–United Kingdom relations refer to the bilateral relations between Liberia and the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom was the first country to recognize Liberian independence. Liberia has a history of border disputes with the British Colony of Sierra Leone, as well as cumbersome British loans which have at times compromised Liberian sovereignty.
France-Liberia relations are the bilateral relations between France and Liberia.