Land Grabbed for Liberia

Liberia’s uniqueness in land conflict stems from the approach United States colonization societies applied to acquired land from indigenous tribal people in West Africa, the lands that eventually became Liberia. These organizations came from the United States to Africa’s sub-region under the pretense of spreading Christianity and civilization on the continent. However, covertly they were searching for a homeland and affluence for freed American blacks and their sponsors. Gobewole (2022) stated that “[T]he primary reason for establishing Liberia was the interest of the United States’ slave holding aristocrats (who were in control of the U.S. government) in ridding the country of freed blacks. This action was initiated to prevent slave uprisings on the plantations” (p. 94). In certification of this objective, the American Colonization Society settled on Cape Mesurado (today encompassing Caldwell, Millsburg, New Georgia, Virginia, etc.), the Pennsylvania Colonization Society settled on Bassa Cove (now Buchanan, Edina, Bexley, etc.), the Mississippi and Louisiana Colonization Societies settled at Greenville on the Sinoe River, and the Maryland State Colonization Society settled on Cape Palmas-Harper (Library of Congress, 2021; Carlisle, 1973, Johnston, 1906). In the early to mid-19th century, they brought freed American blacks, Barbadians, and recaptured Africans (from slave ships) to populate their colonies; these would eventually become a permanent homeland. The establishment of Liberia was made possible by the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, enacted by the second United States Congress shortly after the Constitution was ratified, which authorized local governments to seize and return escaped slaves to their owners and impose penalties on anyone who aided in their flight. This act empowered, the Fugitive Slave Clause of the United States Constitution (Article IV, Section 2.C3.1), which states that “No person held to service or labour in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labour, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labour may be due” (United States Constitution, 1793). Despite its stringent provisions, the 1793 law was not successful at preventing slaves from running away from plantations. The determination to acquire freedom motivated blacks to flee slave plantations regardless of the consequence of the laws. For example, Harriet Tubman’s initiative to free family members and friends from slave plantations (known as the Underground Railroad) revealed the ineffectiveness of the Fugitive Slave Act. However, “The rapid growth of the black population fostered sincere apprehension on the part of white Americans” (Johnson, 1987). Therefore, Congress enacted The Slave Trade Act of 1819. This legislation “authorized that illegally trafficked slaves be sent, at government expense, to Africa, after 1822 to a settlement created in Liberia, operated by a private organization with extensive [United States] government connections, the American Colonization Society” (Chin and Finkelman, 2021). The American Colonization Society membership included several United States presidents: James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, and Abraham Lincoln. These prominent Americans’ support for the American Colonization Society enabled its success at grabbing indigenous tribal communities’ land on the West Coast of Africa. This racist system that prevented slave uprisings on plantations encouraged the slaveholding aristocrats, often also high U.S. government officials, and some freed American blacks to collaborate in raising funds, forming colonization societies, and assisting freed blacks to depart the United States for the grain coast of West Africa. They were leaving a nation for which African slaves provided generations of free labor to build and develop economically. Aminah Pilgrim (2022) stated that “The wealth amassed by slaveholding societies was made possible by exploiting the unpaid labor of the enslaved. The US’s coffers were enriched by the indispensable and involuntary work of millions of Black enslaved people” (p. 25). Yet, the United States’ government was complacent in deporting (colonization) and ridding the country of blacks after they had acquired freedom from slavery. The oppression of American blacks, in turn, set the groundwork for them to oppress native Africans in what would become Liberia.