Liberia : "land of the free"

Robert Finley (1772 - 1817) founded in1816, American Colonizing Society, an organisation for rehabilitation of the American slaves. He was a teacher in Charleston, D.C., a slave importing port. In 1819, American Congress had authorised him the return of freed black slaves who had been brought to the US illegally after the abolishment of the slave trade in 1808. The first organised group of emigrating freed slaves departedfrom NewYork to Freetown, Sierra Leone, in West Africa.With congressional approval, the American Colonizing Society in 1820 founded the colony Liberia, south of Sierra Leone as a permanent homelandfor freed US slaves. US govt. followed yhe similar steps to rehabilitatedthe slaves.Between 1822 and the advent of the Civil War,15,000 African Americans settled in liberia and under presure from the british , the US granted liberia independence in1847, 100 years earlier than India,In 1862 , as war raged ragedbetween the north and south, President Abraham Lincoln officially recognised Liberia as the first independent democratic Republic in african history.

The original settlement was named monrovia, after the name of the then US president James Monroe. Monrvia is the capital of the country Liberia which stands for liberty or "Land of Freedom" and was established in 1822. US govt. created a new ethnic group called the Americo - Liberians and Monrovia is the only name after Washington given to a city in his name.

Reproduction Of the

Emancipation

Proclamation at the

National Underground

Railroad freedom Center

In Cincinnati, Ohio.