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Abraham Lincoln.
The Great Emancipator, right?
Well, he was.
But did you know, he was also kind of a segregationist?
Like many whites of his time, he just wasn't sure there was a place for blacks in America.
Many free African Americans weren't too pleased with their situation, either.
Men like Joseph Jenkins Roberts.
Roberts was a small businessman in Petersburg, Virginia. He chafed at white discrimination.
Because of his race, he couldn't grow his business. His friends couldn't find work.
None of them could vote.
And there was always the danger that they could be kidnapped and sold into slavery.
The solution people came up with was 'colonization' ...
The creation of a new country, far, far away, that free blacks to call their own.
Let's call it ... Liberia - meaning land of the free.
And that’s exactly what they did.
Some African-Americans like Frederick Douglass objected to the plan. They saw is for what
it was - a scheme to deny blacks a place in American society.
But plenty disagreed.
And for two generations, from 1821, the so-called "American Colonization Society" helped thousands
of African Americans in moving to Liberia.
In 1847, the new arrivals declared their independence, set up their own republic, brought in a constitution
and flag closely modelled on the US.
Joseph Roberts saw his dream come true - he got a country of his own - and in fact, he
became the first president of Liberia. But wait. This is not the perfect happy ending.
You see, Liberia was not empty of people.
And those who’d lived in this stretch of West Africa for centuries
were treated as second class citizens by Liberia's new American elite.
The new arrivals had better weapons, and were able to take the best land.
They even set up a system of plantation agriculture not unlike what they'd left behind in the
American south.
Land and resources were also sold off at bargain prices to their old friends, the Americans.
Companies like Firestone Tire and Rubber. So, sadly, Liberia became home to a new form
of exploitation and racism, by the very people who had left America to get away from that
kind of thing.
Tension between the locals and the Americo-Liberians was a big factor in the civil war that wrecked
the country after 1989. That's over now.
Today, Liberia is a fairer place. But still very poor. That's the main reason it's been
so hard for them to cope with Ebola.
Liberia still has close ties with the US though.
Why, they even put a picture of the Great Emancipator on a postage stamp in 2009.
I’m Chris Woolf, history guy at PRI’s The World and if you have any questions about
Liberia or anything else historical, drop them in the comments below.