Liberia will have year long commemoration for their bicentennial in 2022

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Liberian, and Morgan State History Professor Herbert Brewer speaks and answers questions about the settling of Liberia. Video is cued to roughly the 1hr 9min mark

Liberia To Observe 200 Years Of History

Idea Becomes Reality

As the idea of a safe haven for despised free Black Americans clocks two centuries, the Historical Society of Liberia (HSL) is pleased to join the Government of Liberia in commemorating this momentous milestone. HSL’s principal raison d’être is dedicated to the proposition that knowing and preserving Liberia’s past remains a noble undertaking. On this auspicious occasion HSL deems it therefore appropriate not only to issue this Statement, but to also reaffirm a core belief of its mission, namely, to be “part of the national voice mediating historical matters.” In addition, the Statement is a concise narrative of the emigration and disembarkation of the free Blacks on January 7, 1822 on what is now Providence Island, precursor to the founding of the Republic a quarter century later in 1847.

Enslavement in the Americas

How, in the first place, did Black people (presently 14% of US population) end up in a largely White America? The answer is the transatlantic slave trade, the forced transportation of captive Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to enslavement in the Americas—i.e., North, South, and Central America, and the Caribbean (West Indies). Although approximately 12.5 million Africans were transported from eight regions between 1525 and 1866, only 10.7 million actually disembarked. The remainder perished during the harrowing voyage across the Atlantic, or the Middle Passage.

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Today’s Liberia and the Ivory Coast (known together as the Windward Coast) exported 287,366 or 2.2 % of the 12.5m. Of the nations that received the 10.7m, Brazil’s 45% comprised the lion’s share in contrast to the United States that absorbed 388,747 or 3.6 %. (Accessed September 20, 2021 http://slavevoyages.org/tast/assessment/estimates.faces). But in spite of the smaller import, the US African American population grew, for instance, from 1.5m in 1820 to 3.9m by 1860 (Hine et al., 2012), almost doubling Brazil’s by the mid-century (Lindsay, 2008). The increase must have been mainly natural, since the US prohibited the importation of enslaved Africans as of 1808.

Becoming Free

This growth was the source of the free Black population. But how did the enslaved become free, since the US did not abolish slavery until 1865? Because the New World’s chattel slavery stripped individuals of every shred of human dignity, enslaved people constantly looked for ways to escape what was eternal servitude. Some, for example, toiled overtime under extreme hardship, earned money, and bought their freedom. Others were fortunate to have been born free. Still others were emancipated by slaveholders, although some slaveholders tended to make deportation to Liberia a precondition for manumission. In addition, many enslaved people fled the bastion of slavery in the South for the northern states that had abolished slavery earlier, e.g., Pennsylvania (1780). However, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was intended to return runaways. Notwithstanding, the free Black population did increase, for instance, from 59,000 in 1790 to 319,000 in 1830. And two decades later the group numbered 434,449 (Hine, et al. 2012).




Trepidation and formation of the ACS

This increase was a source of fear for the plantocracy—the South’s powerful and politically-connected planter class that relied on enslaved Black labor for the wealth generated from large plantations of cotton, rice, and sugarcane, among others. Planters viewed the growing number of free Blacks as a threat to their economic wellbeing. For example, the presence of free Blacks was perceived as inspiration to the mass of enslaved people (nearly 4m by 1860) to resist enslavement. An example of that resistance is the various slave uprisings: e.g., the Stono Rebellion of 1739 in South Carolina; the bloody Haitian Revolution of 1791 in which former slaves destroyed the prosperous French sugar colony of present-day Haiti, established the independent nation of Haiti in 1804 and killed French colonists; and the 1831 Nat Turner rebellion in Virginia in which planters and leaders of the rebellion were killed.

It was this trepidation that contributed to the formation of the American Colonization Society (ACS) in 1816, with the expressed goal of removal, or colonization of free Blacks, “the promoters of mischiefs,” in the words of one founding member (Staudenraus, 1980).

The ACS membership included slaveholders and prominent politicians (e.g., Bushrod Washington, was founding president of the ACS, associate justice of US Supreme Court, nephew of US first president George Washington, and reportedly a slaveholder; Bushrod Island in Monrovia is named in his honor). Indeed, some founders, including Rev. Robert S. Finley and Francis Scott Key, appeared genuinely moved by the lack of equality for free Blacks in the US. They seemed convinced that only in Africa could these despised free Blacks attain equality and dignity. Yet, in spite of this humanitarian sentiment, the plantocracy hardly concealed its motive: “Colonization,” warned another ACS associate, “was for free Negroes, not slaves” (Staudenraus, 1980).

 

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Emigration and the Bicentennial

US President James Monroe, a supporter of the ACS, provided federal funds to implement the ACS “voluntary” emigration policy; we recall that for some enslaved people, emancipation was conditioned on departure to Liberia. Subsequently, Liberia’s first town was named Monrovia in honor of President Monroe. In March 1820 the initial group of free Black emigrants, some eighty-six, disembarked from the ship Elizabeth and went ashore in Sierra Leone. Those that survived unfamiliar diseases and the result of ill-preparation waited for about two years to find a permanent place on the African coast. Negotiations for that location were concluded by US navy officer Robert Field Stockton and Eli Ayres on behalf of the ACS. They were finalized December 15, 1821 when the chiefs on the Liberian coast, according to the agreement, ceded Dozoa Island (Providence Island) along with Cape Mesurado. The emigrants from Sierra Leone joined other newcomers and settled on Providence Island January 7, 1822.

Around the end of the 1800s the Republic of Liberia consisted of four categories of people. There were 16,428 free Black Americans, followed by 5,722 “recaptured Africans,” or Africans liberated from slave ships. They would become known as “Congoes” (the majority claimed to have originated in the Congo). Recaptured Africans were among the January 7, 1822 Black Americans that settled on Providence Island (ACS Annual Report, 1824). The third group was the 346 Barbadian emigrants that arrived in 1865 (Annual Reports, 1896, 1867). Finally, the largest category was the estimated 1m indigenes (Annual Report, 1900) who met the Government’s requirement for inclusion into the Liberian society—i.e., assimilation of Western culture, or becoming “civilized.” When the 1980 military coup d’état occurred, the ruling class was drawn from the first three groups (together known as “Congo people”), basically to the exclusion of the majority indigenous people. The leaders of the coup, all of indigenous extraction, abolished the January 7 national holiday called Pioneer’s Day that commemorated the arrival of free Blacks in Liberia (Guannu, 2010).

Historical Society of Liberia calls for Providence Island to serve as a monument of the triumphs and the darkest chapters of the country’s past


Providence Island represents a Liberian historical site of the utmost significance. As the site where the first free African Americans settled 200 years ago, it epitomizes not only a pivotal moment of Black nation building and sovereignty, but a critical space of conflict and cooperation between indigenous Liberians and peoples of African descent previously separated by an ocean for many generations. So, when Liberians at home and across the world reflect on the Bicentennial, may Providence Island serve as a monument of the triumphs and the darkest chapters of the Liberian past.

 

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Liberia Kicks off Bicentennial Celebrating Arrival of Black Americans
02/14/22

MONROVIA (Reuters) - President George Weah on Monday called on Liberians to embrace unity and reconciliation as he launched year-long celebrations of the bicentennial of the arrival of the first free Black Americans in 1822.

The former slaves arrived in Providence Island, now the capital Monrovia, in 1822, as part of a mission by the American Colonization Society, which aimed to reduce the number of free Blacks in the U.S. by settling them in Africa.

The Republic of Liberia was founded in 1847, the second Black republic in the world at the time, after Haiti.

Addressing a crowd at Monrovia's main soccer stadium that included heads of state from Togo, Niger, Gambia and Sierra Leone, Weah celebrated Liberia's progress despite periods of civil unrest, including a 1989-2003 civil war in which up to a quarter million people died.

"I believe that our forefathers can look down on today’s Liberia with pride and satisfaction, seeing that their dreams have not only been realized, but that their vision has also been sustained," he said.

"Whatever our differences, we are Liberians first! As Liberia is the only country that we have, we must do all in our powers to keep it safe."

Dana Banks, special assistant to President Joe Biden, led a U.S. delegation to Monday's ceremony.

"When I think about what it must have felt like for those first free people arriving to establish Monrovia ... I can’t help but reflect on the deep, strong, historical ties between the United States and Liberia," she said in a statement.


The country has enjoyed political stability since the end of the civil war, but economic advances have been slower to follow.

 

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Repatriates, Recaptives and African Abolitionists: The Untold Story of Liberia's Founding in 1822

C. Patrick Burrowes, Ph. D. was born in Liberia and he is called "the people's professor" because of his willingness to share his deep knowledge of Liberian history freely with others. Before returning to Liberia in 2017, he was a tenured professor of communications and humanities at Penn State University. Recently, in August 2021, he uncovered a handwritten document missing since 1835, that sheds light on the 1821 purchase of land that became Monrovia, the capital city for the only United States colony in Africa. Dr. Burrowes says that this is the most significant discovery of his career
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From transcript, the introduction and outline of the lecture

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The history of Liberia, which was impacted by slavery and anti-slavery in the U.S.,has remained shrouded by unchallenged myths for 200 years.
Some date back to the early 19th century. They have reduced Liberian story to the status of a children's fairy tale, with a cast of local victims and villains who are policed by a few saviors, usually Westerners. In the Liberian context, what passes for history are often models of the society derived from political science as well as an outdated, excuse me,and discredited school of anthropology.
In this brief talk, I cannot present a fully developed counter narrative complete with empirical evidence. Instead, I simply hope to leave you questioning some sacred dogma. After all, questioning is the first step in learning and scholarship in all disciplines, including history.

This year, 2022, is the bicentennial of Liberia's founding. It provides a perfect opportunity
to peel back the veil to see what really lies beneath.
So here, in no particular order, are five of the most widely accepted myths about Liberian history.


Myth Number 1: In the 19th century, the people of the Windward Coast, where Liberia is now located, were primitives organizedinto unchanging ethnic groups committed to frozen traditions, including the capture and selling of Africans


Myth Number 2: Those who came from the U.S. were culturally incommensurate and hence,
incompatible with those already living in the area.


Myth 3: The American colonization society founded Liberia with support
from the U.S. Navy's Anti-slavery Squadron


Myth Number 4: Liberia's founders were all men



And now Myth 5: The people of Liberia have spent their entire existence locked
in ethnic conflicts without cross-ethnic collaborations or fusions.

 

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Liberia: Bicentennial Spotlights Country's U.S. Ties and National Priorities

Representatives Meeks, Beatty, and Carter prepare to toss flowers into the Mesurado River in memory of the first American immigrants who arrived on Providence Island.

21 MARCH 2022
By Boakai Fofana

Monrovia — Liberia is marking the country's founding as an independent nation in 1822 when the first group of previously enslaved African Americans arrived from the United States. "Our shared history is uncommonly unique and exceptional," President George Weah said in an address on February 14 during the ceremony that launched a year-long bicentennial commemoration. "Today we celebrate 200 years since we first began the journey to become a sovereign state, eventually to become the first African country to be established as an independent Nation."

The presidents of The Gambia, Niger, Sierra Leone and Togo and the Nigerian vice president attended along with former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and a U.S. Presidential delegation headed by Dana Banks, Senior Director for Africa at the National Security Council.

The government has said the bicentennial commemoration is intended "to reclaim Liberia's leadership role in Pan-Africanism" and deepen U.S.-Liberia historic ties, while forging stronger economic and social bonds between both peoples.

The American Colonization Society, which was founded in 1817 to relocate free black people to Africa, had high-powered supporters. The first president was Bushrod Washington, whose uncle was the first U.S. president. Other former presidents were listed among the supporters, including Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and the then-incumbent James Monroe, for whom the capital is named. The first arrivals from the United States were transported to the Providence Island in Monrovia, which now serves as a stark reminder of Liberia's foundation and the country's link to America, as do the flag and constitution which closely resemblance their U.S. equivalents.

President George Weah speaking during the Official Launch of the Bicentennial Commemoration of the Founding of the Republic of Liberia.

The delegation sent by President Biden included Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and the Rev. Dr. Teresa Jefferson-Snorton, Bishop of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and current chair of National Council of Churches in the United States. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations who previously served as ambassador in Libera, had to cancel her planned attendance when war broke out in Ukraine.

President Lincoln recognized Liberia as a sovereign nation in 1862, Dana Banks said in her remarks at the Bicentennial launch. "160 years later, President Biden remains committed to the U.S.-Liberian relationship." She said the President sent the delegation "to demonstrate the unique bond that the United States shares with the founding of Liberia".

She called the American Colonization Society "a racist project" whose efforts to remove free Black people from America nevertheless resulted in "the deep, strong, historical ties between the United States and Liberia – the very ties we are here today to reflect upon and commemorate."

Tens of thousands of Liberians packed the national stadium for the launch. They were there too to view historical and cultural artifacts and musical performances. The country has suffered a lot ever since independence in 1847. A military coup in 1980 ended the more than a century of rule by Americo-Liberians. More than two decades of political turmoil followed, including a bitter civil war that killed a quarter of a million people and displaced thousands more.

Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Africa at the National Security Council Dana Banks meeting with the Elections Coordinating Committee Steering Committee at an event hosted by U.S. Ambassador Michael McCarthy.

But Liberians are resilient. The country is now one of Africa's most stable democracies, rebuilding its institutions and conducting free and fair elections - including the historic vote in 2017 that ushered a peaceful transfer of power from Africa's first elected female head of state, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to Weah, the current president.

There still exist simmering tension between the Americo-Liberian elites and those whose ancestors were here when the American came. And tension also persists among the 16 ethnic groups that comprise the indigenous population – some 95 percent of the total. It was in recognition of these tensions that Weah used the occasion to call for unity. "Let us reinforce and strengthen the common heritage that unites all of us, both the descendants of the indigenous people and the descendants of the settlers" he said. "We are One People, with One Destiny."

"As we recollect, review and re-examine these first two hundred years", the Liberian leader said, "we cannot help but wonder what motivated our forefathers to break the chains of bondage and slavery in order to seek a land where they could experience the benefits of freedom irrespective of color, creed or religion".

Liberians marks 200th anniversary of the arrival on Providence Island of free Black men, women, and children from the United States on Providence Island.

Highlighting the country's historical relationship with the United States, he added: "This converging of people from various backgrounds and localities eventually led to the founding of the country that we all now know and love as the Republic of Liberia." He said Liberians from diverse backgrounds shared a national identity. "This commemoration must therefore bring us closer together, and strengthen our national unity, even as we recognize and celebrate our diversity."

The president also outlined what is required "to ensure that Liberia is a better place." His list began with fighting climate change and included rural-urban migration, housing, sanitation, health and educational facilities and "affordable and reliable electricity" and a national road network.

Further underlining the strength of bilateral ties, a seven-member delegation from the U.S. House of Representatives visited Monrovia a week after the bicentennial launch. Led by Gregory Meeks (New York), who chairs the powerful House International relations Committee, the delegation included Ami Bera (California), Ilhan Omar (Minnesota), Joyce Beatty (Ohio), G.K. Butterfield (North Carolina), Brenda Lawrence (Michigan) and Troy Carter (Louisiana).

"We come in recognition of the 200 years of Liberia's existence as you commemorate the Bicentennial, and we pledge to work with you to ensure continued progress in the country's development and democracy," Meeks told Weah in their meeting at the Executive Mansion. The Congress members also visited Providence Island and Providence Baptist Church, one of three Liberian churches founded by the American immigrants and location where the Liberian Declaration of Independence was signed.

During a visit to Liberia in February 2022, a U.S. Congressional delegation led by Representative Gregory W. Meeks, Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, met with Liberian accountability and transparency organizations to learn about efforts civil society organizations and the Financial Intelligence Unit are undertaking to fight corruption, expand the civic space, and improve governance.

Throughout the coming year, other planned events to commemorate the bicentennial include an investment forum and a day set aside to recognize African Liberation and Liberia's history of pan African leadership.

Currently, the international ship, Logos Hope, carrying the world's largest floating bookfair is docked in Monrovia. Operated as part of a Christian missionary outreach program, the ship is offering a selection "at affordable prices" of over 5,000 different titles covering a variety of subject of books and is open for tours with interactive displays.

Boakai M. Fofana is Liberia's Deputy Minister of Information. From 2007 to 2018, he was a senior editor and AllAfrica Bureau Chief based in Monrovia.

Liberia: Bicentennial Spotlights Country's U.S. Ties and National Priorities