History of Liberia

The country of Liberia, the brainchild of the American Colonization Society, was founded in the early 19th century. Members of the ACS (as the society was called) believed that Black people would have better opportunities for both freedom and prosperity in Africa than they would in the United States. Between the years of 1822 and 1861 (at the outbreak of the American Civil War), more than 15,000 free-born and freed Black individuals relocated to Liberia.

These Liberian settlers, who faced so...