JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES IN HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor History is past Politics and Politics present History--_Freeman_ NINTH SERIES X HISTORY OF LIBERIA BY J.H.T. McPHERSON, Ph.D. _Fellow in History, Johns Hopkins University, 1889; Instructor in History, University of Michigan, 1890; Professor of History and Politics, University of Georgia, 1891._ * * * * * 1891 CONTENTS. I. INTRODUCTION II. THE COLONIZATION IDEA III. THE COLONIZATION MOVEMENT IV. MARYLAND IN LIBERIA V. THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA VI. THE HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE OF COLONIZATION 1. As a Southern Movement toward Emancipation 2. As a Check to the Slave Trade 3. As a Step toward the Civilization of Africa 4. As a Missionary Effort 5. As a Refuge to the Negro from the Pressure of Increasing Competition in America AUTHORITIES PREFATORY NOTE. This paper claims to be scarcely more than a brief sketch. It is an abridgment of a History of Liberia in much greater detail, presented as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Johns Hopkins University. I have devoted the leisure hours of several years to the accumulation of materials, which I hope will prove the basis of a larger work in the future. J.H.T. McP. UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, June, 1891. HISTORY OF LIBERIA. I. INTRODUCTION. There are but few more interesting spots in Africa than the little corner of the west coast occupied by the Republic of Liberia. It has been the scene of a series of experiments absolutely unique in history--experiments from which we are to derive the knowledge upon which we must rely in the solution of the weighty problems connected with the development of a dark continent, and with the civilization of hundreds of millions of the human race. Many questions have arisen which have not been settled to our complete satisfaction. Is the Negro capable of receiving and maintaining a superimposed civilization? Froude declares that "the worst enemies of the blacks are those who persist in pressing upon them an equality which nature has denied them. They may attain it in time if they are fairly treated, but they can attain it only on condition of going through the discipline and experience of hundreds of years, through which the white race had to pass before it was fit for political rights. If they are raised to a position for which they are unqualified, they can only fall back into a state of savagery."[1] Upon the truth or error of this view how much depends! It is shared by many; some even believe that the condition of Liberia tends to confirm it, thinking they discern signs of incipient decay. But the great preponderance of opinion is on the other side. The weight of evidence shows the colonists have at the lowest estimate retained the civilization they took with them. Many maintain that there has been a sensible advance.