July 26: Independence Day in Liberia
Prayer Idea
Pray for the people and government of Liberia.
Map by Peter Hermes Furian / Shutterstock.com.
History Note
The modern country of Liberia was historically part of the Mali and Songhai Empires. European traders established outposts there, but it never became a full European colony.
Robert Finley, a Presbyterian minister, founded the American Colonization Society in 1816. With support from prominent people such as Francis Scott Key, Henry Clay, and Bushrod Washington (nephew of George Washington), and initial funding from the federal government, the society wanted to establish a colony in Africa for black Americans.
Many white Americans, including some who opposed slavery, did not think that people with different shades of skin color could live peacefully together. Though some black leaders in America were open to the idea, others felt that they had no personal connection to Africa. Their ancestors had been brought to the United States many decades before, and they had lived in the United States all of their lives.
In 1821 the American Colonization Society negotiated with local chiefs (under pressure from the U.S. Navy) to secure some land in part of West Africa known as the Grain Coast. They established a city named Monrovia after James Monroe, then president of the United States. The society purchased the freedom of some enslaved people. It paid for them and for people who had never been enslaved to move to the new colony.
Perhaps 10,000 people took them up on their offer between 1821 and 1867. Some enslaved people who were rescued from slave ships by the U.S. Navy also moved there. The American settlers faced conflict with the Indigenous Africans as they attempted to establish a functioning government. Joseph Jenkins Roberts (1809-1876), who had been born free in Virginia, became the first African American governor of the colony in 1841.
After a vote for independence by the people, Roberts led the effort to declare Liberia’s independence from the American Colonization Society on July 26, 1847. Roberts visited the United Kingdom and met Queen Victoria in 1848. The UK was the first country to extend diplomatic recognition to Liberia. A few other European countries did the same. The United States did not officially recognize the country until 1862.
Today the country has a population of 5.5 million. With 28 ethnic and language groups, it is a diverse society that has sometimes struggled to work together. About 85% of the population belong to a Christian denomination while 12% are Muslim. Only about 5 percent of the population trace their heritage to the settlers from America who came in the 1800s.
This 1919 photo shows Liberian school children parading past the president’s house in Monrovia on their Independence Day, July 26.
Learn More
Team Definition is a musical group from Nigeria. This video features their performance of the Liberian national anthem, “All Hail, Liberia, Hail!”
Find more resources at Homeschool History.
