Boundaries of Slavery in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Liberia

Abstract

On the official seal of Liberia, a sailing ship approaches the coast; a palm tree, plough, and spade stand on the shore; a dove flies overhead carrying an open scroll; and the sun rises over the waters. Above the image is the national motto: ‘The love of liberty brought us here/ With the possible exception of the palm tree, all of these symbols reference the founding of Liberia by African Americans, and their hopes for self-sufficiency and peace. Although many of the colony’ original white backers had been supporters of slavery, attempting simply to rid the United States of free black people, those African Americans who settled in Liberia from the 1820s saw colonization as their best chance for freedom. On the continent of their ancestors, settlers hoped for the political and economic agency that they had been denied in the United States. In this way, the Americo-Liberians (as settlers and their desccndants became known) conceived of Liberia as a place of ‘free soil/ not unlike the ‘free’ states of the American North. They could achieve personal freedom through physical movement to this ‘free’ territory, where racial slavery was explicitly outlawed.¹