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Liberia is a country in West Africa founded by free people of color from the United States. The emigration of African Americans, both freeborn and recently emancipated, was funded and organized by the American Colonization Society (ACS).
history of Liberia, a survey of the notable events and people in the history of Liberia. The country is located in western Africa along the Atlantic coast. Liberia’s terrain ranges from the low and sandy coastal plains to rolling hills and dissected plateau further inland.
Liberia is the only Black state in Africa never subjected to colonial rule and is Africa’s oldest republic. It was established on land acquired for people who formerly had been enslaved in the United States by the American Colonization Society, which founded a colony at Cape Mesurado in 1821.
The early days of Liberia were marked by constant frontier troubles with the French on the Ivory Coast and the British at Sierra Leone. The Liberians tried to extend their authority inland, although they were still unable to control all the coastal area they claimed.
Histories of Liberia generally begin with the arrival of the Portuguese traders in the mid-1400s, and the rise of the trans-Atlantic trade. Coastal groups traded several goods with Europeans, but the area became known as the Grain Coast, because of its rich supply malagueta pepper grains.
Liberia was founded in 1822 as an outpost for returning freed slaves from the Americas. It grew into a colony and eventually became a commonwealth, and achieved independence in 1847 with the help of the American Colonization Society (a private organization based in the United States).
The colonies established by the Virginia Colonization Society, the Quaker Young Men's Colonization Society of Pennsylvania, and the American Colonization Society merged as the Commonwealth of Liberia and claimed control over all settlements between Cestos River and Cape Mount.