History

The free slaves

The history of Liberia is rare compare to the rest of Africa do to the fact Liberia has no connection to the Scramble for Africa but used as an outpost for free slaves from the Americas in 1822. After the abolishment of slavery the number of free slaves increased causing fear among whites.

American society could not accept African Americans living in their society as free individuals, so Thomas Jefferson proposed relocating free blacks outside America. Unable to figure out the details Jefferson, plagiarized Paul Cuffee’s idea of relocating free slaves to Africa which resulted in the colonizing of Liberia from 1821-1847 by America, which acknowledged independence in 1847.

After independence Liberia was given to Americo-Liberians which ruled Liberia from 1847-1980. The small minority of African American colonists preserved economic, social and political control of Liberia. Americo-Liberians fashioned a society based on American values in Liberia, which included: building churches, and houses resembling those of Southern U.S.

The dominate control of the ocean, modern technical skills, education and relationships with American institutions brought tension among the local native peoples, which resulted in a military coup d’état in April 1980 by . The bloody overthrow of the Americo-Liberian by indigenous Liberians resulted in Samuel Doe and the People’s Redemption Council; they took control of Liberia from 1980-1989.

Samuel K. Doe

The new leaders lacked experience and poorly prepared. The government sank resulted in tribal and civil war. Doe was assassinated by Charles Taylor who then took control of Liberia.

Taylor and the NPFL occupied Liberia from 1986-1996, which resulted in the first Liberian Civil War. The Civil War was one of the bloodiest, more than 200,000 Liberians were killed. The Second Liberian Civil War began in 1999 and ended in October 2003. The UN and US military ended the war by stopping the rebel siege on Monrovia and exiled Charles Taylor. The war took more than 250,000 people and nearly one million people displaced. The future of Liberia after the war seems bright since Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was elected president. After fourteen years of war, Liberia is developing as a peaceful and steadily growing country.