In 1815, Paul Cuffee, an African-American Quaker, led a small group of freed slaves to Sierra Leone, where they were able to establish a colony. The American Colonization Society, founded in 1816 by a group of Quakers and slaveholders, including Justice Bushrod Washington, Speaker of the House Henry Clay and Francis Scott Key, was encouraged by Cuffee’s voyage and began working on a voyage of its own. Many Abolitionists, including William Lloyd Garrison, opposed the idea, believing it an attempt to rid the country of free blacks while fortifying the slaveholding community. But influential advocates such as Clay and Key “thought slavery was unsustainable and should eventually end but did not consider integrating slaves into society a viable option. The ACS, with $100,000 from Congress, arranged for 88 free blacks and three ACS agents to sail to West Africa aboard the Elizabeth, nicknamed the “Mayflower of Liberia,” on Feb. 6, 1820. The country declared its independence on July 26, 1847. The United Kingdom was the first country to recognize Liberia’s independence. The U.S. did not recognize Liberia’s independence until during the American Civil War on February 5, 1862. Between January 7, 1822 and the American Civil War, more than 15,000 freed and free-born black people who faced legislated limits in the U.S., and 3,198 Afro-Caribbeans, relocated to the settlement. The black settlers carried their culture and tradition with them to Liberia. The Liberian constitution and flag were modeled after those of the U.S. On January 3, 1848, Joseph Jenkins Roberts, a wealthy, free-born African American from Virginia who settled in Liberia, was elected as Liberia’s first president after the people proclaimed independence.
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