A Return Home

A Brief Understanding of Liberia

My interest in this entry centers around the "Back-to-Africa" movement that was proposed by Marcus Garvey during the 19th century. So for the next few posts, I would like to explore some of the key moments that I believe were crucial to Black Americans seeking to return home.
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Liberia is a country settled by freeborn Blacks and former Slaves during the 1800s. It is located on the Western Coast of Africa next to Sierra Leone and Guinea.

How did this happen? 

In 1816, a group that was known as the American Colonization Society (made up of Slaveholders, Quakers, and Abolitionist), had come to the agreement that Black Americans should be repatriated to Africa. It was interesting to learn that while the Slaveholders didn't believe that Black people deserved to be free in America, they did believe that being free is Africa was better for them.  There was heavy opposition from both Black and White who believed that this was setting the people up for failure. However, funding and legislation were pushed and in 1822, 86 people had volunteered to take the journey back home. 

Unfortunately, this was not a lovely return. If it weren't the diseases, such as Malaria or Yellow Fever, it was the hostility enacted by the indigenous Africans. The indigenous population was upset for several reasons: the forced settlement by the Americans, the forcing of Christian ideologies, and how the presence of the Settlers had interfered with the indigenous populations involvement within the slave trade. Despite the hostility, the settlers were tenacious in proving that they could create a community/society amongst the doubt back in America.

What's next?

In the next blog, I will discuss the struggles, civil war, and trouble happening back in America.