The Cannibal Warlords of Liberia (Full Length Documentary) VICE GUIDE TO TRAVEL S1 • E2

Liberia is a country in West Africa which was founded, established, colonized, and controlled by citizens of the United States and ex-Caribbean slaves as a colony for former African American slaves and their free black descendants. It is one of only two sovereign countries in the world that were started by citizens and ex-Caribbean slaves of a political power as a colony for former slaves of the same political power, the other being Sierra Leone, established by Great Britain. In 1847, Liberia proclaimed its independence from the American Colonization Society (ACS).

Liberia was under control and as protectorate of United States. It retained its independence throughout the Scramble for Africa by European colonial powers during the late 19th century, and the country remained in the American sphere of influence. Until 1980, Liberia was dominated by the small minority of descendants of the free black colonists, known collectively as Americo-Liberians. Little economic development occurred. From the 1920s, the country became dependent on exploitation of natural resources, particularly the rubber industry and the Firestone Company.

From around 1800, in the United States, people opposed to slavery were planning ways to achieve manumission of more slaves and, ultimately, to abolish the institution. At the same time, slaveholders in the South opposed having free blacks in their midst, as they believed the free people threatened the stability of their slave societies. While mostly freed in the North, former slaves and free blacks suffered considerable discrimination, and some territories and states in the Northwest prohibited migration by free people of color.

Irony---> <--- Liberty does not exist here

Some abolitionists, including distinguished blacks like Paul Cuffee, believed that blacks should return to their homeland. Cuffee’s dream was that free African Americans and freed slaves "could establish a prosperous colony in Africa," one based on emigration and trade.[1] In 1811, Cuffee founded the Friendly Society of Sierra Leone, a cooperative black group intended to encourage “the Black Settlers of Sierra Leone, and the Natives of Africa generally, in the Cultivation of their Soil, by the Sale of their Produce.” As Wright put it, "Cuffee hoped to send at least one vessel each year to Sierra Leone, transporting African-American settlers and goods to the colony and returning with marketable African products."

The first ship, Mayflower of Liberia (formerly Elizabeth), departed New York on February 6, 1820, for West Africa carrying 86 settlers. Between 1821 and 1838, the American Colonization Society developed the first settlement, which would be known as Liberia. On July 26, 1847, it declared its independence.