Blogging Without Maps: Edina

Americo-Liberian Home in Edina, Liberia
photo by Ken Vogel

Liberia is an African Republic with towns that have US sounding names like New Georgia, Virginia, Kentucky and Louisiana. The reason goes back to our own US history when the US government funded an organization called the American Colonization Society (ACS) to purchase land in Africa to send "free people of color" back to Africa. What was some of the reasoning behind this?

"Congo-style" house, Robertsport, Liberia

Ever since the Haitian slave revolt many slaveholders were terrified of the idea that their slaves might also revolt. Seeing or hearing about these "free people of color" walking about might give slaves the motivation they needed to revolt. So many Southern slaveholders joined the ACS and many had the intention of sending any slave they freed back to Africa instead of being allowed to walk about free and proud in the antebellum South. There are also claims that some of these freed slaves were children born to master's through their slaves that they wanted to hide away from their community by sending them to Africa. This was one line of thought in the ACS.

"Congo Home" Edina, Liberia
photo by Ken Vogel

The ACS was also joined by abolitionists who surely made strange bedfellows with the slaveholders. Their reasoning was that it is not safe for a "free person of color" to stay in the US. A freed person would have to carry around paperwork proving they were free and could be stopped at any time simple due to the color of their skin. The opportunities available to a person of minority skin color were also very limited in the US and many who opposed slavery didn't just want people free they wanted them to be able to thrive in a viable society. Many of these people foresaw the decades upon decades of integration issues that would surely follow after emancipation and wanted a better life for those who were freed. They thought, "perhaps in going back to Africa they will have a better chance of living freely."

Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Robertsport, Liberia

Many of the "Free People of Color" were fairly skeptical of the whole ordeal, but some saw the same opportunities that some of the abolitionists had seen. In fact, it was a free person of color and devout Quaker "Paul Cuffee" that helped lay the groundwork for the ACS. Many of these groups of freed slaves that returned to Liberia were also sponsored by churches to evangelize Africa. The reasoning was that someone of the same skin color would be more effective in this missionary work, what had perhaps not been considered was that culture is not a matter of skin color. These Americo-Liberians, as they are called, brought the South with them and converts were Americanized just as much or perhaps even more than Christianized. One tragic part of the South that these freed slaves brought with them was that some of these Americo-Liberians enslaved the native Liberians to work on their plantations!

Americo-Liberian Plantation, Edina, Liberia
photo by Ken Vogel

What I'm sharing with you today are some of these Americo-Liberian homes and/or plantations and churches that sprung up all along the coast of Liberia. I find them quite beautiful even in their deteriorated states. The native Liberians call the Americo-Liberians "Congo" and call these houses "Congo Houses" so that is why they are sometimes so captioned. To someone from the US they definitely resemble old Southern architecture and it is rather surreal to see the US South standing in the middle of a tropical rain forest in Africa!