Liberia: A Study of the Colonial Period 1817-1845
Abstract
The underlying assumption of this paper is that
the first-hand writings of the colonists and the later
academic monographs of the anthropologists and ethnographers
are in some way complementary; that both are necessary for
any accurate history of the colonial experience in Liberia.
We have chosen as our focus the so-called "colonial" years
of Liberian history, stretching between 1820 and 1837. The
organization of the thesis itself is, perhaps, a too simplistic
and Hegelian one: thesis, antithesis, and synthesis.
The first section attempts to sketch a model of native
society as it existed on the "Pepper Coast" prior to the
arrival of the American colonists. The second section
briefly traces the origins of the colonization movement
in the United States in order to understand the development
of the colonial "native policy" in Liberia. The final
section is a record of the colonial period itself, a study
of its impact on indigenous society in Liberia.