How Black Americans Created an Aparteid System in Liberia

Executive Summary

• African Americans that moved to Liberia moved there to get away from slavery.
• They immediately created aparteid conditions to keep away from Africans.

Introduction

Liberia provides a fascinating story of how ex-slaves behave after being freed if allowed to enslave others. I cover the slave aspect of the creation of Liberia in the article Did African Americans Enslave Liberian Americans. This article covers the topic of the aparteid conditions created by black Americans in Liberia.

Our References for This Article

If at any time you want to see our references for this article and also other related articles, see this link.

The Origins of Liberia

Liberia began as a settlement of the American Colonization Society (ACS), who believed black people would face better chances for freedom and prosperity in Africa than in the United States. – Wikipedia

IN 1821, a ship arrived at a place near where my hotel now stood (Monrovia lies on the Atlantic, on a peninsula), bringing an agent of the American Colonisation Society, Robert Stockton. Stockton, holding a pistol to the head of the local tribal chief, King Peter, forced him to sell – for six muskets and one trunk of beads – the land upon which the US organisation planned to settle freed slaves (mainly from the cotton plantations of Virginia, Georgia, Maryland). Stockton’s organisation was of a liberal and charitable character. Its activists believed that the best reparation for the injuries of slavery would be the return of former slaves to the land of their ancestors – to Africa. – The Guardian

Comparing Liberia Versus South Africa

There was enormous outrage at South Africa for having the aparteid system. However, Liberians created an aparteid system to separate black Americans from Africans long before South Africa adopted this system.

As early as the middle of the 19th century, long before apartheid was instituted in southern Africa by the Afrikaners, it had been invented and made fresh by the rulers of Liberia – descendants of black slaves. – The Guardian

Furthermore, the black Americans in Liberians illustrated their enormous hypocrisy but instituting a segregationist system against Liberians, which they said was immoral for the whites in the US to set up against them. This is explained in the following quotation.

Reflecting the system of segregation in the United States, the Americo-Liberians created a cultural and racial caste system, with themselves at the top and indigenous Liberians at the bottom. They believed in a form of “racial equality,” which meant that all residents of Liberia had the potential to become “civilized” through western-style education and conversion to Christianity. – Wikipedia

How American Liberians Desired to Restrict the Movement of Indigenous Africans

During World War II, thousands of indigenous Liberians migrated from the nation’s rural interior to the coastal regions in search of jobs. The Liberian Government had long opposed this kind of migration, but was no longer able to restrain it. – Wikipedia

This shows that the American Liberians did not want the Africans moving close to them. When whites do this to blacks, this is referred to as racism. However, when blacks do it to blacks, it is not called anything. And more than that, it is barely discussed.

Conclusion

The country created by African Americans was exceptionally segregated and was an example of black Americans wanting to redline and keep African blacks from living among them or intermarrying with them. This brings up the question of whether black Americans that went to Liberia ever actually opposed segregation or only opposed it when they were on the side of being segregated to protect their areas. It also brings up why Liberia has been so little covered in history.

The Response From Some Blacks to the Article

Several blacks have reached out and have asked for this article to be taken down. I have asked them to provide evidence of factual errors in the article, but none replied. The idea they generally present is that taking down the article would make “blacks happier” and would make it appear as if blacks are somehow more innocent. When we asked why they are asking for information that is accurate to be taken down, we were told “it’s not about that” and “it’s not about accuracy.” And that we “would not understand.” And that it causes blacks pain or to be emotionally triggered to learn that American blacks quickly created an aparteid system when blacks arrived in Liberia.

There is also an undercurrent that slavery is no slavery unless the slave owner is white and the slave is black, which I explore in the article Is It Slavery if the Slave Owners is Not White.

How Much of the Problems With This Article Are Due to Race Scamming?

Many blacks want segregation and aparteid to be categorized as only whites do. However, Liberia proves that they will set up an aparteid system to separate themselves from Africans when they feel like they can benefit—presenting segregation as only something whites do is a pretext for scamming white societies to provide more benefits and allow more immigration or blacks to white countries. We cover this strategy by many blacks in the article How Making False and Selective Claims is Part of a Scam by Black Americans.