Liberia History  

Liberia’s first contact with Europeans was in 1461 when Portuguese explorers began making their way down the West African Coast. As part of the “Grain coast,” for nearly three centuries Liberia held little appeal to outsiders except for small exports of slaves. In the early 19^th century though interest began to increase significantly from United States. Using the British colony of Freetown, Sierra Leone as an example, many in the US saw an opportunity for free Blacks to be sent to Africa, and begin life anew. In 1822 the settlement of American colonists along the Liberian shore began in earnest, and continued until after the US Civil War. Though tracts of land along the coast were “purchased,” the indigenous peoples of Liberia were not happy with the encroachment of the Americans, and waged numerous wars against them. Eventually, the Americans were able to establish themselves, and declared themselves an independent nation in 1847.  

The “Americo-Liberians” (of American ancestry), and the “Congos” (people descended from those rescued from slave ships), though a small minority of the totlal population, came to dominate the political and economic life of the country. The sixteen tribes of Native Liberians were actively discriminated against by them, and for many decades did not share the same legal rights. In 1980, after over 150 years of hostilities, the Americo-Liberian grip on power was brutally broken. This only led to prolonged civil war, which devastated the economy and infrastructure of the country. Only recently has Liberia found peace, and this has come under a democracy that is controversial at best. The hope of Liberia being a paradise-like “homeland” for those who had once suffered under slavery has held little of its original promise. 

THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY

The American Colonization Society was born of the frustration of two wildly divergent philosophies relating to the situation of liberated slaves in the United States. Abolitionists felt newly freed slaves would never be treated fairly in the U.S. On the other hand, slave owners feared that the freedmen would encourage rebellion among those still enslaved. Both groups felt “repatriation” to Africa was the best solution for free Blacks. The slaveholders were dominant in the early ACS, and their opinion was summarized by Henry Clay at that first meeting, “Of all the classes of our population, the most vicious is that of the free colored. It is the inevitable result of their moral, political and evil degradation. Contaminated themselves, they extend their vices all around them, to the slaves, to the whites. Every emigrant to Africa is a missionary carrying the credentials of the holy cause of civilization, religion, and free institution.” In other words, freemen were a scourge on the U.S., but would bring enlightenment to Africa.  

In December of 1816, a group including Clay, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Bushrod Washington (nephew of George), Francis Scott Key and Daniel Webster met in Washington to found the American Colonization Society, and one week later they adopted a constitution. In 1818, a venture was commissioned  to investigate the African coast for a suitable location for a colony. An area south of the British outpost of Sierra Leone was found, already settled with a small group of Freemen, and the promise of the area seemed good. In 1819, the fledgling American Colonization Society received a $100,000 appropriation from Congress for the execution of their scheme. At the same time a provision was made for the transportation and support of any Africans found aboard seized slave ships to the new colony.

The first efforts of the ACS met with strife and failures. The first group sent in 1820 was ravaged by Yellow Fever, and gave up after three weeks. Others met with resistance from the indigenous people of the area, and, literally, had to fight to survive. Eventually, through persistence, the colony took root, and Blacks from the U.S. began to make their way across the Atlantic.  

The ACS was a very paternalistic organization, offering Blacks little say in their situation - merely wanting them to be “examples” of the benefits of the scheme. For the first 20 years, the ACS employed white governors for the settlement. In 1840’s, the colony was becoming too much of a financial burden for the ACS, and was encouraged to declare itself an independent nation. In 1847 it did so, and Liberia became a country. Still, ACS representatives administered many aspects of the Liberian government, and served as liaison between it and the United States.

The ACS continued to promote its cause until after the civil war. By 1867, over 13,000 Blacks had made their way to Liberia. In the 1880’s the function of the ACS shifted from the eastward emigration of people, to the support of Liberia, especially in the development of the school system. In 1912, the American Colonization Society was dissolved.

Crossing the Atlantic, Again

As soon as word of the Africans at Key West reached Washington, the question arose as to what to do with them. President Buchanan felt the law clearly stated they should be sent to Liberia, but under what terms? After a short debate by Congress, a resolution was passed, and expenditures appropriated. Contracts for transportation to and support in Liberia were negotiated with the American Colonization Society. In June, three ships set sail from New York to carry the Africans from Key West to Liberia.

By all accounts, the Africans were very dismayed about having to leave Key West, and considering their earlier experience, reluctance to board a ship is understandable. Their second voyage across the Atlantic though, was intended to be nothing like their first. The American Colonization Society agreed to provide large, seaworthy ships “classed A No.1,” and to provide a new set of clothes for each person, “wholesome, well-cooked food,” medicines and medical attendance, sleeping berths, bathing facilities, and protection against sun and rain.

The Castilian carried 400 people from the Wildfire, the South Shore 355 from the William, and the Star of the Union 383 from the Bogota. Unfortunately, and much like the first voyage, many people died. Of the 1,138 people who left, only 823 survived delivery to the agents of the Colonization Society. Some deaths were accidental (a man fell down a hatch, ten people drowned when their canoe overturned going ashore at Liberia), but most others were from sickness, and most of these were people who had never fully recovered from the misery of the slave ships. “The principal causes of death were diarrhea, dysentery, dropsy, and scurvy. One hundred were in a sickly condition when shipped at Key West,” wrote William Young, US agent aboard the Castilian, though, he added, the “necessary confinement, and absence of vegetable food” aggravated these conditions. It seems that despite good intentions, the legacy of their first Atlantic crossing was too much to prevent the second from being much better.

John M. McCalla’s voyage on The Star of the Union  

In June of 1860, the United States Government contracted with Dr. John M. McCalla, Jr., a resident of Washington, D.C., to serve as their agent aboard the ship Star of the Union. His mission was to accompany 383 Africans rescued from the slaver Bogota on their voyage to Liberia, and make sure that the provisions of the contract between the US and the American Colonization Society were satisfactorily executed.

This was McCalla’s first sea voyage, and to better remember it, he kept a detailed journal. From June 13^th, the time he left Washington to meet the ship in New York, until his return home on December 10^th, he recorded the daily events, and the position of the ship at sea. It is a remarkable document that provides vivid insight into the Africans, aspects of their culture, and the conditions they faced during their 2^nd crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. Because McCalla was not a sailor, he was fascinated by many of the ordinary aspects of life at sea – to him the mundane was anything but. His observations provide a clear, “landlubber’s” perception of life on a clipper ship in the waning days of sail.

Though McCalla was the man responsible for the Africans, but he did not seem to be particularly fond of them. His writings are filled with disdainful remarks regarding his charges, and reflect a distrustful attitude towards people of African descent in general.

Dr. John Moore McCalla, Jr.

John McCalla, Jr. was born in Lexington Kentucky in 1832. When he was eleven years old, his family moved to Washington, D.C., where his father Gen. John McCalla, a hero of the War of 1812, had received a government appointment by President Polk. McCalla attended the Rittenhouse Academy for boys, and graduated in Medicine from Columbian College, and National Medical College. He served as summer resident physician at the Berkeley Springs resort in Bath, Virginia after graduation.

At the age of 28, McCalla applied for a temporary position as Special Agent for the US Government on an American Colonization Society ship transporting a group of Africans rescued from a slave ship from Key West, Florida to Liberia. It is not clear as to why he wanted the job, and perhaps it was simply for adventure. He was certainly already familiar with the African colony, as some of his father’s former slaves had emigrated there after the family left Kentucky. He received the commission, and took his one and only sea voyage. The detailed journal he kept during this time is a remarkable document, recording details about the Africans, shipboard life, and Liberia.

After his return from sea, McCalla was appointed by the Surgeon General to serve as resident physician at the US Army hospital at Georgetown. In 1864 he married Helen Varnum Hill. They had five children; three of who died in infancy. McCalla eventually gave up his medical practice due to poor health, and helped to manage the Varnum family’s extensive real estate holdings throughout the District of Columbia. He died in 1897, at the age of 65.

A New Life in Liberia

Once the surviving Africans landed in Liberia they were as lost as when they reached Key West. Despite it being on the African continent, it was not home. The colony too had to struggle to accommodate the large influx of new immigrants.

The US Government contracted with the American Colonization Society to provide shelter, food and clothing for the new colonists at the rate of one hundred dollars per person over eight years old, and fifty dollars per person under that age per year. This contract ran for one year. After that, the Africans were expected to have become acclimated to their new lives, and able to manage for themselves. The three ships each went to different ports to transfer their passengers – the Castilian to Cape Mount, South Shore to Bassa, and Star of the Union to Sinoe. From there the “Recaptives” were apprenticed to American-Liberians to work, and learn the ways of the colony.

Of the 878 people who survived the Atlantic crossing from Key West, it is recorded that as of March 31^st, 1861 – and the last such record – 781 were still alive, and becoming integrated into the young nation’s population.