Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 235, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 October 1910 — THE NEGRO PROBLEM IN LIBERIA [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE NEGRO PROBLEM IN LIBERIA

By OVERTON PRICE

f HE first idea of a “Liberia”— set tlement of free negroes—arose with the foundation of the British colony of Sierra Leone. After tire- close of the American War of Independence in 1783 it became necessary to provide for the negro troops who had served Great Britain faithfully in that unhappy struggle. They were at first deported to Nova Scotia, but had no place there in the body politic of white men; they were no longer slaves, but the idea of granting the suffrage to negroes was then displeasing to the dominant race. There was also the problem of the free Maroon negroes of Jamaica, who were irksome to the authorities in a land of slavery. So the idea of founding a free negro state or community in West Africa for the reception of enfranchised American negroes came into being about 1784, and in 1787 the colony of Sierra Leone was founded under a chartered company and taken over by the crown in 1808. Early in the nineteenth century the same difficulty arose in the United States, namely, the presence of thousands of free negroes whose case had not been sufficiently provided for by the American Constitution. Somehow

or other these free negroes and mulattoes—growing Impatient of being taxed without representation—must be provided for. So several philanthropists, remembering Sierra Leone, thought to promote by private enterprise and philanthropy a similar colony across tSie sea which might provide for the return to West Africa (whence most of them had come) of the freed slaves of the United States. Indeed, there was a strong disposition to adopt Sierra Leone for this purpose, with the assent of the British government; but the local authorities of Sierra Leon showed-themselves very averse from receiving American negroes, who might owe a divided allegiance. Accordingly the American founders of "Liberia” (this name was not given to the infant state until 1824) —who were mostly white men with a few mulattoes and negroes—selected the Grain Coast, immediately to the south and east of Sierra Leone, for their experiment. It was some weeks before the hostility of the natives, who were wedded to the slave trade, Cculd be overcome, but in 1822 active operations were begun. A thirty-acre tract was allotted to each man with the means of cultivating it The National Colonization society's agents became discouraged at the difficulties that were met and returned to America with a few faint-hearted ones; but the others rallied about a determined negro, Elijah Jobhsbn, and remained. The colony was enlarged by the addition of new tracts. New settlements were afterward formed at Cape Monte and in the newly acquired Bassa Land, In which, in 1834. a town was founded and called Edina, in acknowledgment of pecuniary aid sent from Edinburgh. Many of the neighboring chiefs were received into the colony, and others were subdued. Trials \of many kinds, deprivations and dissensions were the lot of the colony, managed by a society which did not fully know whether its aims were sentimental or practical. In 1847 Liberia was left to its own resources and declared an independent republic. The colony immediately began to show more prosperity, numerous churches and schools were founded, newspapers were established, and slavery in the neighboring states was abolished. The first president of independent Liberia was Roberts, an octoroon. He was a most able and courageous man and the country made rapid strides In civilization and other material lines : •• -- r js.’ A-

of progress under his administration. The constitution of the republic is framed after that of the United States. There are a president, vicepresident, a council of six ministers and a house of representatives. Voters must be of negro blood and own real estate. The natives gnerally do not avail themselves of the suffrage. No foreigner can own land without the consent of the govern-

eminent. The coast territory Is formed into the counties of Bassa, Cape Palmas and Slnoe, with "one superintendent each, and Montserrado, with four superintendents. The capital Is Monrovia, named after President Monroe. English money is used, but American money figures usually in the keeping of accounts. There Is a Liberian coinage rather large paper currency. The official language of the country is English. The civilized inhabitants are orthodox Protestants, mostly Episcopalians. \i j. During the fifties and sixties of the last century the Amerlco-Liberians did much to exhr' plore the interion and enter into treaty relationships with chiefs. But thirty years ago their administration began to get into financial difficulties. It is not an easy thing to create a well-ordered, well-governed state in tropical Africa without a considerable capital to draw on. Consider for a moment what Great Britain has spent on Sierra Leone since 1787, and on the Gold Coast wars, the opening up of Nigeria; or the outlay of France on Senegambia or Dahomey; and then lmagjue how the government of Liberia could without any reserve of capital bring law, order and civilization into a densely forested territory nearly the size of England, with a prcjbable population of over a million warlike savages and semi-savages. So long as Britain and France—the controlling powers—contented themselves with the mere occupation of a few coast towns on the seaboard of their West African dominions or protectorates, the Monrovia government could afford to do the same. But when these great European powers were compelled bTT force of circumstances to occupy and administer the regions behind their coasts the Liberians found themselves in a position of great difficulty. They had been allotted theoretically by France and England a considerable hinterland —more than 50,000 square miles—and were held responsible for the doings of the native tribes in that extensive interior. Now these tribes had never been subdued by the government of the republic. They were many of them in treaty relationships with the Monrovia administration, and such of them as had heard of the civilized negro government on the coast (and it must be remembered that much of the interior is dense forest, inhabited by

tribes who for ages have been isolated in that forest, and were—and are—quite ignorant of the world outside their tribal land) were quite willing to regard the Liberians as the ruling power on the seashore. But they were very disinclined to obey orders from Monrovia if contrary to their own desires. The tribes farthest inland looked upon the British and French—the “white men”—as aggressors who were putting down by force a most lucrative slave trade, who were forcibly disclosing the secrets of sacred streams like the Niger near Its sources, who, in short, were not only to be opposed, hut whose organized territories offered a most profitable field for raids and robberies. More than this: the Import of guns, gunpowder, rifles (above all) and alcohol was being restricted or forbidden by the Europeans. The Liberian coast, especially where it was slenderly guarded by the Liberian administration, offered the one loophole through which these forbidden goods mighl be smuggled. Accordingly a great trade sprang' up between these uncontrolled hinterland tribes and the Kru people on the coast, who affected a sort of detachment from the govern ment by the American-Negro republic. In these ways the Liberian hinterland became a positive source of danger and expense to the

British protectorate of Sierra Leone and tto French possessions of the Sudan and Ivory Coasl Consequently the Liberian government hai been forced of late years to live somewhat beyom Its means in organizing a police and a marine, it occupying the Kru coast and In attempting t< construct roads to places of Importance in tht interior. It has from time to time engaged Euro pean officers for its services; but whereas som< of these engagements have been of noteworthy success, others have been the reverse, and it li difficult to locate the blame. European capita Is somewhat shy of Liberia, partly owing to th< turbulence qj the interior natives (though this has been exaggerated, for white men very seldon really incur danger from the indigenes), but mors on account of the Irresponsible fickleness of th« legislature, which Is given too much to the bastj making and unmaking of laws and to Conflicts ol opinion with the executive. 4 Yet the country is extremely rich. Its rocks and river valleys produce both gold and diamonds, some of the coast districts (especially in the east) even give indications of the existence of bitumen, or oil-bearing strata, while the forests of the interior are remarkable for their wealth of rubberbearing trees and lianas, their ebony, African teak and “mahogany," and the piassava fiber (derived from the raphia palm), which is used for so many purposes connected with the making of brooms and brushes. Then there is the oil-palm, with its two kinds of oil, both valuable to commerce—the

oil of the husk and that of the kernel. The extraction of this last and its great value for special Industries are said to have been discovered some seventy-five years ago by an American negro, one of the early colonists of Liberia. A great deal was done by these freed slave settlers, for which they have never received sufficient credit. Unfortunately the attempted colonization of Liberia has been hindered by the American negro colonists proving almost as much liable to malarial fever and other African diseases as Europeans. They seem to have lost the relative immunity from these blood-germ maladies which their African ancestors enjoyed The modern America-Llberian does not stand the climate of Liberia much better than the white man from Europe or America. The country Is not unhealthy in the Interior; It is the coast belt which, with its eternal heat and moisture, its very short dry seasons, and torrential rains (conditions which suit admirably the cultivation of rubber, coffee and cacpo) saps the vitality of residents not of African birth. And the hinterland, with its superior conditions of climate, has already a somewhat large Indigenous population, who are not eager for foreign additions to their numbers