BarryM686851

Imagineturningfrom aslaveto aslaveowner,quitehard to digest right?But that’s exactly what some freedslavesfrom Americadidin Liberia. Toexplainthis, youneedtounderstandhow thestateof Liberia came about. Thecountry'shistoryistiedto thecreationof the American Colonization Society(ACS)in 1816. Its goal wastocreateacolonyin Africa toresettleindividualsfreedfromslavery. At face value it might sound like a charitable idea.However,inreality, it wasfeared free Blacks would have a negative impact on U.S society and could spark a Haitian-style revolt against remaining slave owners. To solve the problem, the ACSdecidedtoshipthem to aterritoryon the West African coast, now present-day Liberia. ThesocietyusedtheU.S. navyto coerce local people toselltheirlandafter initial attempts failed. And by the early 1820s thousands of freed slaves had beenshippedto the new colony. Twenty-seven years later, thecolonydeclaredindependencefrom the ACS. But that opened up new struggles. Despitemaking upless than fivepercentof thecolony'spopulation, thesettlers -knownas Americo-Liberians - dominatedits economic and political system.They refused to integrate with the indigenous people and created a caste-like system with former slaves at the top. Marriagesbetween the twogroupswere strongly discouraged overfearsof 'contamination' of the Americo-Liberiansrulingclass. Indigenouspeople were also forced to work onplantationsownedby thesettlers, effectively recreating theconditionsthese former slaves hadsufferedin America. Theoppressioncreatedtensionsbetween the twocommunitieswhich came to a head in 1980.Samuel Doe, anindigenousLiberianarmy officer, violently overthrew thegovernmentof WilliamTolbert, ending 133 years of Americo-Liberian rule. Thecoupset off aseriesof civil wars thatkilledat least two hundred thousand anddisplacedover a million.