Liberia - free ebook by Frederick Starr

LIBERIA: DESCRIPTION HISTORY PROBLEMS

BY FREDERICK STARR CHICAGO 1913 Copyrighted , 1913 By FREDERICK STARR CHICAGO THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO WILLIAM N. SELIG OF CHICAGO IN EVIDENCE OF APPRECIATION AND AS A TOKEN OF REGARD...

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PREFACE

Africa has been partitioned among the nations. The little kingdom of Abyssinia, in the north, and the Republic of Liberia, upon the west coast, are all of the continent that remain in the hands of Africans. Liberia alone is in the hands of negroes. Will it remain so, or is it destined to disappear? Is it a failure? The reports which have so frequently been printed in books of travel and elementary treatises of ethnology appear almost unanimous in the assertion that it is. Yet there are those who

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Physiography

—1. There are various inherent difficulties in African Geography. The population of the Dark Continent is composed of an enormous number of separate tribes, each with its own name, each with its own language. Most of these tribes are small and occupy but small areas. For a mountain, or other conspicuous natural landmark, each tribe will have its own name. What name is given by a traveler to the feature will be a matter of accident, depending upon the tribe among which he may be at the time that

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Political Geography.

—1. The name Liberia was suggested in 1824 by Robert Goodloe Harper, of Baltimore, Maryland, and has reference to the fact that the colony was established as a land of freedom; the capital city, Monrovia, was also named on his suggestion in honor of the president of the United States at that time, James Monroe. The Republic of Liberia is divided for administrative purposes into four counties—Montserrado, Grand Bassa, Sinoe, and Maryland. These are named in order from west to east. The portion of

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Society.

—1. In considering the society of Liberia, and the problems with which the Liberian government has had to deal, it is necessary to sharply distinguish the different elements of which it is composed. We have already indicated them, but it will be well here to clearly separate them. We may first recognize immigrant and aboriginal populations. The immigrant population, as we use the term, includes negroes who have come from the United States, from the British West Indies, or from South America, and

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Government.

—1. The Declaration of Independence of Liberia was adopted on July 26, 1847. It is a human document of extraordinary interest. As a basis for it, the declarers state their case in the following words: “We the people of the Republic of Liberia, were originally inhabitants of the United States of North America. In some parts of that country we were debarred by law from all rights and privileges of men—in other parts, public sentiment, more powerful than law, ground us down. We were everywhere shut

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Economics

—1. We have already called attention to the attitude of the Americo-Liberian toward manual labor and have shown that it is, on the whole, natural under the circumstances. Where there are sharp contrasts between the elements of society, as there are in Liberia between the Americo-Liberians, the Vai, the Kru, and the “Bush Niggers,” there is bound to develop more or less of caste feeling. This was inevitable with people who had themselves come from a district where caste was so marked as in our so

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1821-1828.

The American Colonization Society was founded in Washington in December, 1816. To it Liberia is due. On the 23rd of December, 1816, the legislature of Virginia requested the governor of the state to correspond with the President of the United States “for the purpose of obtaining a territory on the coast of Africa, or at some other place not within any of the states, or territorial governments of the United States, to serve as an asylum for such persons of color as are now free, and may desire th

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1828-1838.

Richard Randall, the newly appointed agent, arrived at Monrovia on December 22, 1828. He found the Digby incident still unsettled. King Brister (or Bristol) had been threatening. Randall thought it best, however, not to pursue active warfare and attempted to adjust matters without fighting. He was a man of excellent ideas, devoted to his duties, active and energetic. He was imprudent, however, in caring for himself, and died on April 19th, having been in the colony only about four months. He was

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1838-1847.

Governor Buchanan had scarcely come to power when he was forced to take vigorous action against the slave traders at Trade Town; he assumed the right of jurisdiction over the entire territory along the Little Bassa seaboard; he ordered a trader, who had been there established for some months, to leave within a given time or suffer the confiscation of his entire property; the man had received two similar orders from Anthony D. Williams, but had treated them with contempt; to Buchanan’s order he r

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1847-1913.

The election was held in October, and Joseph Jenkin Roberts, the Governor of the Commonwealth, was elected to the new office of President of the Republic. One of his earliest acts was to visit Europe in order to ask the recognition of the new nation by European countries. The first to recognize the Republic was Great Britain; France was second. As it may be interesting to know just what powers have so far recognized Liberia as a nation, the list is presented in the order of their recognition, th

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BOUNDARY QUESTIONS.

The most pressing and ever urgent question which the Republic has to face is the protection of its frontier against aggression; Liberia has two powerful neighbors, both of which are land-hungry and are continually pressing upon her borders; she has already lost large slices of her territory and is still menaced with further loss. Shortly after his election to the presidency of the Republic, President J. J. Roberts visited Europe. He was well received both in England and France. On one occasion,

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THE FRONTIER FORCE.

When President Barclay was in London, the British Government demanded that certain internal reforms should take place in the Republic before it would discuss a final settlement of either the Mano River or Kanre-Lahun difficulties. Shortly after the President’s return to Monrovia, Mr. Braithwait Wallis, Consul-General of Great Britain to Liberia, issued a memorandum on the subject—apparently under the fear “lest we forget”. This memorandum, which bears the date of January 14, 1908, occupies four

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TRADE DEVELOPMENT AND TRANSPORTATION.

Liberia’s very existence depends upon her development of trade. If the Liberians push forward in this direction, her future may be assured. If, however, she neglects it, her neighbors, France and England, can not be expected to permit their opportunity to pass. The area of the Black Republic is far too rich by nature to be overlooked; if its legitimate owners fail to develop it, others will do so. The past of Liberia was built on trade in wild produce; its immediate prosperity must depend upon t

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THE NATIVE.

Jore, in his valuable study of Liberia, discusses the question of the actual number of natives in Liberia as follows: “Messrs. Johnston and Delafosse have estimated the number of natives of Liberia at 2,000,000 persons. This figure would appear to-day to be above the actual. In fact, from serious studies which have been made in French West Africa, it results that a density of population superior to twelve inhabitants to the square kilometer, has been found only in Lower Dahomey, Ovagadougou, in

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EDUCATION.

The importance of education was recognized by the “fathers.” The quotation of President Roberts which we have given above voiced the feelings of the more thoughtful of the settlers. Yet it must be admitted that the educational situation is far from perfect. There is a recently established Department of Education, the Secretary of which holds a Cabinet position. In 1912 Dr. Payne had under his direction ninety-one public schools in different parts of the Republic. Most of these schools were house

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IMMIGRATION.

The original settlers in Liberia were for the most part aided in their immigration by the American Colonization Society. The whole business of shipment, transportation, and reception soon became quite thoroughly systematized. Those who had funds of their own made use of these in getting to the “Land of Promise” and settling; but many were quite without resources. Such were sent out passage free by the Society; on arriving at Liberia, they were transferred to “receptacles”—houses especially const

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THE FOREIGN DEBT OF THE REPUBLIC.

On January 26, 1870, the Legislature authorized President Edward J. Roye to negotiate a loan not exceeding £100,000, at not more than 7 per cent interest; the bonds were to run for fifteen years, and three years’ interest advanced might be deducted. Of the sum to be received upon this loan £20,000 was to be used in buying up all the checks, scripts, currency debentures, and government paper of whatever kind then afloat; £20,000 more was to be deposited securely as a basis for the issue of a pape

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POLITICS.

We have hesitated long about undertaking this discussion of Liberian politics. We are almost certain to be misunderstood, no matter what we say or how we say it. In Liberia they will feel that we lack sympathy, that we drag forth their weaknesses and expose them to public scorn; in this country they will fail to see that the weak points of Liberian politics are common to all republics, that they are as flagrant among ourselves as in Liberia; in foreign lands—should our book be read in such—what

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THE APPEAL TO THE UNITED STATES.

In 1908 Liberian conditions were desperate. England and France had been alternately slicing off territory; debts were weighing the nation down, and creditors were pressing; reforms were insolently demanded under threats. The future indeed was dark. In her hour of desperation, Liberia turned to the United States. The idea of seeking aid from us seems to have been first voiced by T. McCants Stewart in January, 1908. A Commission was appointed by the Legislature—consisting of Garretson W. Gibson, J

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THE LIBERIAN CRISIS. (Unity. March 25, 1909.)

In closing my The Truth about the Congo , I said: “If it is necessary for us as a nation to look for African adventure; if to give a strenuous President the feeling that he is ‘doing something’ we must meddle in the affairs of the Dark Continent, there is a district where we might intervene with more of reason and consistency and grace than we are doing by going to the Congo. We once established on African soil, whether wisely or not I do not intend to discuss, a free republic for the blacks. In

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THE NEEDS OF LIBERIA. (The Open Court. March, 1913.)

The situation of Liberia is critical. Her long-troubling boundary questions with Great Britain and France are not permanently settled; they have been re-opened and both countries are pressing. We did well to come to her financial aid; but we did badly in needlessly inflicting upon her an expensive and complicated international receivership instead of an economical , simple and national one. Liberia’s crying needs are: a. Training of her native frontier force to protect her boundaries and maintai

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A SOJOURNER IN LIBERIA. (The Spirit of Missions. April, 1913.)

Anxious to see all possible of Liberia, we gladly accepted Bishop Ferguson’s invitation to visit Bromley and to inspect the work done at the Julia C. Emery Hall. On reaching the landing at Monrovia at 8 a. m. we found the mission steamer, the John Payne , ready. Our party consisted of ex-President Barclay, ex-Postmaster-General Blount, Justice T. McCants Stewart of the Supreme Court, Major Young, U. S. A., military attaché of the American Legation, Mayor Johnson, the Rev. Mr. Cassell and Bishop

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LIBERIA, THE HOPE OF THE DARK CONTINENT. (Unity. March 20, 1913.)

An address given at All Souls Church, Abraham Lincoln Centre, Chicago, March 9, 1913. As this contains little that is not contained in the next item, and nothing but what occurs in the body of the book, it is not reprinted here....

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WHAT LIBERIA NEEDS. (The Independent. April 3, 1913.)

In 1905 I sailed from Antwerp to the mouth of the Kongo River. When we reached Freetown, Sierra Leone, we spent several hours on shore. On returning to the steamer we found all greatly changed; the white crew was laid off and the steamer was swarming with black boys who had been taken on to perform the heavy work of the vessel so long as she should be in the hot country. In the morning I found that these black boys were Krumen from Liberia; they pointed out the shores of their country as we sail

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SHOULD THE AFRICAN MISSION BE ABANDONED. (The Spirit of Missions. August, 1913.)

The development of the Church mission in Liberia has been most encouraging. It began in March, 1836, when James M. Thompson, a colored man, opened a mission school at Mount Vaughan with seven native children. It has grown until, in his last report, Bishop Ferguson stated that there were 26 clergymen, 8 candidates for holy orders, 2 postulants, 25 lay teachers, and 46 catechists and teachers. During the year of 1912, 242 children and 237 adults had been baptized—423 of them being converts from he

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THE PEOPLE OF LIBERIA. (The Independent. August 14, 1913.)

There is no question that ultimately Liberia must depend upon her native population; the native tribes are the chief asset of the black republic. If it is to make progress in the future, there must be hearty coöperation between the “Liberian” and the “native.” The native must be aroused to realize that his interest is the same as that of the Liberian; he must realize that his country is the Liberian’s country; he must learn to know and to carry his part of the common burden. This is going to be

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DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE IN CONVENTION

Town of Monrovia; June and July 1847 We, the representatives of the people of the Commonwealth of Liberia, in Convention assembled, invested with authority for forming a new government, relying upon the aid and protection of the Great Arbiter of human events, do hereby, in the name and on behalf of the people of this Commonwealth, publish and declare the said Commonwealth a FREE , SOVEREIGN and INDEPENDENT STATE , by the name and style of the Republic of Liberia . While announcing to the nations

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CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA

The end of the institution, maintenance, and administration of government, is to secure the existence of the body politic, to protect it, and to furnish the individuals who compose it, with the power of enjoying in safety and tranquility, their natural rights, and the blessings of life; and whenever these great objects are not obtained, the people have a right to alter the government and to take measures necessary for their safety, prosperity, and happiness. Therefore, we the People of the Commo

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SUGGESTIONS Made by the Liberian Government to the American Commission in 1909

1. That the Government of the United States be requested to guarantee as far as practicable the independence and integrity of Liberia, either alone or in conjunction with certain European powers. 2. To advise and counsel the Government of Liberia on international affairs and with respect to reforms. 3. The Government of the United States be requested to liquidate the foreign and local indebtedness of the Republic, taking over the control of its financial and customs administrations for a period

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LIBERIAN OFFICIALS

[D-J] Indicates white men. [K] Indicates white men....

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Map of Liberia

Large map (380 kb) Footnotes have been moved to under the paragraph or other element in which they are referenced. Inconsistent spelling (including spelling of names) and hyphenation in the printed work have been retained; spelling variants have not been standardised, except as mentioned below. Page xiii: Inconsistencies between the Table of Contents and the text have been retained. Page 24, Footnote [A]: the numbers given for the settlements in St. Paul’s do not add up to the total given. Page

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