Liberia: Description, History, ProblemsStarr, Frederick
History
Liberia: Description, History, Problems
Starr, Frederick
Liberia
On August 27, 1827, the _Norfolk_ arrived with 142 recaptured slaves;
this was the largest shipment of the kind so far sent. The policy was
adopted of settling such Africans in settlements by themselves at a
little distance from Monrovia, on lands well suited to agriculture; it
is remarkable how readily these poor creatures took advantage of the
opportunities offered them; they were industrious, established neat
settlements, cultivated fields, and were anxious to learn the ways of
the “white man”; as, however, they represented different tribes,
occasional difficulties arose among them through tribal jealousies, and
adjustment was necessary at the hands of the civilized colonists.
Ashmun’s health had long been bad; the injuries he suffered in the
attack at Trade Town had been somewhat serious; he had, moreover, been
subjected to a constant strain of anxiety, together with responsibility;
he had been doing the work of several men; his condition finally became
critical, and he decided that he must leave the colony. Whatever feeling
might have existed at one time against him, he was now a much loved man;
in losing him, the colonists felt as if they lost a father; he embarked
on March 25th for the United States; he reached his native land in a
condition of extreme exhaustion and weakness; on August 25th he died at
New Haven, Conn. There was no white man in the colony at the time when
Ashmun left to whom he could turn over the leadership of the settlement;
he accordingly placed affairs in the hands of Lott Carey.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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