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Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean to its south and southwest. It has a population of around 5 million and covers an area of 43,000 square miles (111,369 km2). English is the official language, but over 20 indigenous languages are spoken, reflecting the country's ethnic and cultural diversity. The country's capital and largest city is Monrovia.
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 a part of the stars and stripes flag family.
The American Colonization Society (ACS), initially the Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America until 1837, was an American organization founded in 1816 by Robert Finley to encourage and support the migration of freeborn blacks and emancipated slaves to the continent of Africa. It was modeled on an earlier British colonization in Africa, which had sought to resettle London's "black poor".
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. 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.
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.
Alfred Francis Russell was an Americo-Liberian missionary, planter, and politician who served as tenth president of Liberia from 1883 to 1884 after serving as vice-president under Anthony William Gardiner, whom he succeeded as president.
The vice president of the Republic of Liberia is the second-highest executive official in Liberia, and one of only two elected executive offices along with the president. The vice president is elected on the same ticket with the president to a six-year term. In the event of the death, resignation or removal of the president, the vice president ascends to the presidency, and holds the position for the remainder of their predecessor's term. The vice president also serves as the president of the Senate and may cast a vote in the event of a tie. The current vice president is Jewel Taylor, serving under president George Weah. She began her term on January 22, 2018.
James Skivring Smith was a Liberian politician who served as the sixth president of Liberia from 1871 to 1872. Prior to this, he served as the eighth vice president of Liberia from 1870 to 1871 under President Edward James Roye and as Secretary of State from 1856 to 1860 in the cabinet of President Stephen Allen Benson. He was a member of the True Whig Party.
Edward Wilmot Blyden was an Americo-Liberian educator, writer, diplomat, and politician who was primarily active in West Africa. Born in the Danish West Indies, he joined the waves of black immigrants from the Americas who migrated to the country. Blyden became a teacher for five years in the British West African colony of Sierra Leone in the early twentieth century. His writings on pan-Africanism became influential throughout West Africa, attracting attention in countries such as the United States as well. He believed that Zionism was a model for what he termed Ethiopianism, and that African Americans could return to Africa and help in the rebuilding of the continent.
The McGill family of Monrovia, Liberia, was a free African-American family from Baltimore, Maryland, who emigrated to Monrovia in the 19th century. Among the early American settlers in Liberia, the McGills became established as one of the most prominent early Americo-Liberian families. Daguerreotypes of the McGill family can be found in the Library of Congress. Members occupied colonial offices, and they are mentioned in the African Repository magazine published by the American Colonization Society.
Elijah Johnson was an African American who was one of the first colonial agents of the American Colonization Society in what later became Liberia. He was probably born in New Jersey, and received some limited schooling in New Jersey and New York. He served as a soldier in the War of 1812 and studied for the Methodist ministry.
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.
Slavery in Maryland lasted over 200 years, from its beginnings in 1642 when the first Africans were brought as slaves to St. Mary's City, to its end after the Civil War. While Maryland developed similarly to neighboring Virginia, slavery declined here as an institution earlier, and it had the largest free black population by 1860 of any state. The early settlements and population centers of the province tended to cluster around the rivers and other waterways that empty into the Chesapeake Bay. Maryland planters cultivated tobacco as the chief commodity crop, as the market for cash crops was strong in Europe. Tobacco was labor-intensive in both cultivation and processing, and planters struggled to manage workers as tobacco prices declined in the late 17th century, even as farms became larger and more efficient. At first, indentured servants from England supplied much of the necessary labor but, as their economy improved at home, fewer made passage to the colonies. Maryland colonists turned to importing indentured and enslaved Africans to satisfy the labor demand.
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.
Americo-Liberian people, are a Liberian ethnic group of African American, Afro-Caribbean, and liberated African descent. The sister ethnic group of Americo-Liberians are the Sierra Leone Creole people, who share similar ancestry and related culture. Americo-Liberians trace their ancestry to free-born and formerly enslaved African Americans who emigrated in the 19th century to become the founders of the state of Liberia. They identified there as Americo-Liberians. Some African Americans following resettlement in Canada also participated as founding settlers in Sierra Leone and other Recaptive repatriates settled in present-day Côte d'Ivoire.
The United States has political, economic and cultural ties with the independent African countries.
John Seys was an American reverend, missionary, and diplomat.
Charles H. Harmon was the tenth vice president of Liberia from 3 January 1876 to 7 January 1878.
References
- ↑ Park, Eunjin (2001). "White" Americans in "Black" Africa: black and white American Methodist missionaries in Liberia, 1820-1875. Routledge. p. 61. ISBN 9780815340270 . Retrieved October 20, 2011.
- ↑ Johnston, Harry Hamilton; Stapf, Otto (1906). Liberia, Volume 1. London: Hutchinson & Co. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
- ↑ "The African Repository and Colonial Journal". African Repository . 26: 295. 1850. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
- ↑ Miller, Randall M. (1978). "Dear Master": letters of a slave family. Cornell University Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-8014-1134-2.
- ↑ Burrowes, Carl Patrick (2004). Power and press freedom in Liberia, 1830-1970: the impact of globalization and civil society on media-government relations. Africa World Press, Inc. p. 96. ISBN 9781592212941 . Retrieved October 20, 2011.
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