Liberian laborers at the Firestone Plantation Company, in Harbel, Liberia, hauling latex for the Allied war effort.

What was Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, the most powerful and most dominant Allied leader of World War II, doing in Liberia in January 1943? What was he doing in a small tropical West-African country while the world was consumed by war? What was he doing in Liberia while the Battle of Stalingrad, between the Russians and the Germans raged? Why did he insist on going to Liberia despite the fact that he had a very bad cough and cold, and his doctors had advised him not to make the trip? The answer to these questions lie in the special role Liberia played in the war effort. During World War II, Liberian territory was used by United States and British military forces to ferry American soldiers, and American and British war supplies from Parnamirim air base in Natal, Brazil, to the North African war theatre. Additionally, Liberia was the only source of natural rubber for the Allies. Writing in his memoirs, "THE MEMOIRS OF CORDELL HULL", (Volume II, p. 1186), former Secretary of State, Cordell Hull wrote, "With Japan's occupation of the Rubber producing areas in the Far East, Liberia became of greatly increased importance to us as one of the few remaining available sources of natural rubber." On this trip to Liberia, President Roosevelt had four key issues to discuss with Liberian leaders: (1) finalize plans to establish United States military bases in Liberia, which were to be used as a springboard to transport American soldiers, military hardware, and supplies to North Africa; (2) reaffirm Liberia's commitment to continue supplying the United States with natural rubber; (3) persuade the Liberian Government to expel German citizens in Liberia, because they were security threat to the United States and its allies; and (4) persuade Liberia to abrogate its neutrality, and declare war on Germany and its Axis.

An honor guard of African-American troops, from the 41st Engineers and Defense Detachment, under the command of Colonel A. A. Kirchoff, welcoming President Franklin D. Roosevelt at Roberts Field, Liberia, in 1943. President Roosevelt had just arrived in Liberia, after a four hour flight from Bathrust, Gambia.

Severing diplomatic relations with Germany and expelling all German citizens from Liberia was a difficult decision for Liberia to make for several reasons: (1) German merchants in Liberian ran the Liberian economy; (2) Germany was Liberia's major trading partner; and (3), most of the doctors in Liberia were Germans. Despite the fact that Liberia found itself between a rock and a hard place, she willingly agreed to expel all German residents and declare the full might of the Liberian economy against Nazi Germany and the Axis.

Liberia's declaration of war against the mighty German military machine might sound comical to some, but Liberia's possession of natural rubber, one of the most important strategic natural resources during the war, made her declaration of war against Germany, one more nail on the coffin of Nazi Germany.

From 1940 to 1945, rubber was analogous to the United States, what crude oil was in the 1970s--it was scarce worldwide, and it was expensive. There were two reasons for this demand: first, Japan had invaded and confiscated the world's major sources of natural-rubber supply in the Far East ( Malaysia (a.k.a Malaya) and Singapore); and secondly, because scientist were still working on the creation of synthetic rubber, and whatever information the industrialized world had on synthetic rubbber was still at its experimental stage.

After the Japanese confiscated the world's major sources of rubber supply in Malaysia and Singapore, the demand and the price of natural rubber in the United States rose to an astronomical level, while supply continued to dwindle. This situation created a national crisis in the United States because natural rubber was a strategic commodity in the war effort. Natural rubber was needed to build tires for war planes, military jeeps, aircraft guns and sensitive radar equipments. Natural rubber was also required to build portable bridges, gliders, oxygen masks and many other war supplies. American civilian industry also needed rubber for commercial uses, especially tires for private and commercial vehicles. The civilian and military demand for rubber was so monumental, and supply was so exiguous relative to demand, that a law was enacted in the United States, reducing the speed limit to 35 miles per hour, and limiting the mileage of individual cars to 5,000 miles per year, to preserve the life of tires.

Since Liberia was the only country where the United States and its allies could obtain their supply of natural rubber, and because Liberia had a special relationship with the United States, and since Liberia and the world faced a global menace from Adolf Hitler, President Barclay assured President Roosevelt that Liberia would supply all the natural rubber that the United States and its allies needed for the war effort.

In addition to supplying this strategic resource to the Allies, the Liberian Government also granted to the United States, use of its territory to store war supplies and to construct military bases in Montserrado County and Grand Cape Mount County at Fisherman's Lake.

An African-American soldier greeting President Franklin D. Roosevelt at Roberts Field, Liberia, 1943.

The provision of war supplies to the North African war zone was difficult, expensive, and time consuming. United States military supplies were taken from Florida, transported through South America to Brazil, then flown from the Parnamirim air base in Natal, Brazil to the military depot at Roberts Field, where 5,000 African-American troops stored and maintained the inventory. From Roberts Field, the war supplies were flown to Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.The use of this South American-Liberian corridor to transport American soldiers and war supplies to North Africa was necessary, since shipping in the North Atlantic Ocean had become hazardous to American war and merchant vessels. German U-boats had taken complete control of this Atlantic-Ocean corridor. The situation became even more problematic for the allies after the fall of France in 1940. Hundreds of allied ships were sunk by German submarines in this region. To make matters worse, not even the best military planes could make the direct flight from the United States to North Africa. In General Eisenhower's "Crusade in Europe," he admitted that he seriously considered using Liberian territory as the initial staging ground for the invasion of North Africa and Europe. Liberia's strategic location from Brazil and the North African war zone was so important to the Allies that American and British military personnels almost came to blows, because the United States military refused to let the British military fly its military supplies through Roberts Field. The situation became so tense, that the matter had to be settled between President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill at their meeting in Casablanca.

This map shows how the United States military moved thousands of soldiers and war supplies from the United States to Liberia. The men and supplies were then taken to North Africa. The trip began from Miami, through Central America, to Brazil, then to Liberia.[Source: courtesy, The New York Times, Tuesday April 26, 1994]

This American military presence in Liberia had an affirmative impact on the Liberian economy, and a stabilizing effect on the social and political relationship between the Liberian state and Liberians of the indigenous class who were resident in the provinces of Liberia. Liberia began this special relationship with the United States by converted its national currency from the British pound sterling to the United States dollar; United States Lend Lease funds were made available to the Liberian Government, to subsidize the construction of Liberia's first port, the Freeport of Monrovia; the first major airport, Roberts Field, was constructed by Pan Am and the U. S. Government; American military engineers began the construction of major roads from Monrovia to the interior of Liberia; from 1939 to 1945, Liberia consecutively registered favorable balance of trade, which amounted to $25.9 million during the six-year period, that amounts to $754 million in current dollars; Liberian Government revenue rose from $827,000 in 1939 to $1.9 million in 1945, an increase of 133.9 percent; and the artificial boundary drawn between Liberia and its provinces was broken. Thousands of laborers from the interior of Liberia descended on the coastal region, especially to Roberts Field and Firestone Rubber Plantations, in search of jobs. This massive migration of indigenous Liberians, which the Liberian Government had previously attempted to restrain by legislation (Liberian territory extended for 40 miles in the interior), and through an agreement with Firestone Plantations Company in the 1920s, was subsequently erased. Indigenous Liberians and their families began to get some of the social and economic benefits that they paid for through the hut tax. Their children attended Liberian public schools; they received health care and other services that were not present on the same scale, or not present at all in the interior. On September 14, 1943, Secretary of State, Cordull Hall, wrote President Roosevelt the following in a letter about United states relations with Liberia: "Our relations with Liberia from a strategic point of view have never been of more importance ... as a result of the war, Liberian economy has been oriented almost entirely to the United States".

The downside to this American military presence were charges that African-American troops murdered, physically abused, and denigrated indigenous people who lived adjacent to the base. Civilians venturing around the military facilities were reportedly shot at and sometimes killed with impunity. The town adjacent to Roberts Field was even named "Smell-no-Taste" by the local people, because they complained that they smelled the American food, and either never tasted it or never had enough of it. It must be pointed out that these are charges that have been made by eyewitnesses over the years, but have never been investigated and substantiated. It is possible that the firing were warning shots, intended to keep out people from sensitive military equipments and supplies.

On a more leisure note, African-American soldiers reportedly named a red-light district which was close to Roberts Field, "camp followers." This was where American soldiers came to look for women of ill repute.

President Edwin Barclay, sitting between Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt and President Roosevelt, and President-elect William V.S. Tubman, sitting next to Secretary of State Cordell Hull, visited Washington, DC in May 1943. [picture, courtesy of the New York Public Library]

This is the picture of my grandfather, Paramount Chief Akoi Tellewoyan of the Boday & Wubormai Chiefdoms, Lofa County, and Vice President Richard Nixon of the United States. My grandfather had just presented Vice President Nixon with the traditional Liberian gown and hat, conferring the title of honorary paramount chief on the American Vice President. The occasion was Vice President Nixon's visit to Liberia in March 1957. My grandfather was then estimated to be in his nineties, but still a very strong and healthy man.

The picture of President Roosevelt and President Barclay on the soil of Liberia, says much about the special relationship that has existed between the United States and Liberia since African-Americans and Africans recaptured from slave vessels by the American navy were settled in Liberia from 1822 to about 1865. It was through the initiatives of leading American political figures of the early nineteenth century, that the Liberian state was formed, and it was through the assistance of American Presidents from James Monroe to Franklin Roosevelt, that the sovereignty of the Liberian state was preserved. It should however be noted, that there is nothing to romanticize about the historical relationship that has existed between Liberia and the United States. The idea of a Liberian state was conceived by key American political and religious leaders, as a way of solving the race problem in the United States. In the nutshell, the idea was to solve the race problem by separating the African race from the white race through forced deportation to Liberia, if necessary.

This is an animation of key leaders of the colonizationist movement. It was through the initiatives of these Americans that the Liberian state was formed. Associate Justice Bushrod Washington, Former President James Madison, and Henry Clay served as President of the American Colonization Society from 1817- 1830s; and Chief Justice John Marshall served as President of the Virginia Colonization Society. Monrovia, the capital of Liberia was named in honor of President Monroe; Marshall Territory, now MarGibi County (the prefix "Mar" is for Marshall) was named in honor of Justice Marshall; Clay-Ashland was named in honor of Henry Clay; and Bushrod Island was named in honor of Bushrod Washington. (Source of portraits and daguerreotypes: Library of Congress, except Bushrod Washington which comes from volume IV of Albert J. Beveridge's "The Life of John Marshall")

The American political and religious leaders who formulated and carried out this racist policy were called colonizationists. They included former President Thomas Jefferson; former President James Madison, President James Monroe; Speaker of the House of Representatives Henry Clay of Kentucky; Chief Justice John Marshall of the United States; Secretary of the Treasury William H. Crawford of Georgia; Attorney General William Wirt; Associate Justice Bushrod Washington, nephew of the late President George Washington; General Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, future President of the United States; Elias B. Caldwell, Clerk of the United States Supreme Court; Congressman Charles Fenton Mercer of Virginia; Daniel Webster of Massachusetts; Francis Scott Key, author of the United States national anthem; John Taylor of Virginia; Richard Rush, who served as United States Minister to England; and Rev. Robert Finley. All these men, except Robert Finley, were either slave holders, or subscribed to the preservation of the institution of slavery. The grand design of these men was an apartheid system which would promote the separation of all free African-Americans from the white race in America. The four-step plan included the following: all free African-Americans were to either emigrate freely or be deported to Liberia; the slave trade was to be abrogated to stop the influx of more Africans in the United States; the institution of slavery was to be preserved; and as African-Americans were manumitted, they were to be deported directly to Liberia. By following this plan to the letter, the two races would , in time, be separated.

Although white Americans in high places had thought about formulating an apartheid system for years, the idea was placed on a back burner, until several key foreign and domestic events of the late seventeenth century relating to slavery, hastened the process. The foreign event that influenced the colonizationist into this separatist philosophy, was the Haitian revolution of 1791, which was lead by Francois Dominique Toussaint Louverture. The fear and uncertainty among whites in America, was that Toussaint, a full-blooded African who had defeated British and French forces, might eventually invade the United States and free the slaves, and that free African-Americans might join Toussaint in freeing their brothers from servitude. The whites who feared this scenario, called the will of the slaves to free themselves, the"San Domingo" virus. It was thought that the revolutionary forces set off by the Haitian Revolution, on the island which encompass "San Domingo," present day Dominican Republic, and "St. Domingo," present day Haiti, were infecting the American-slave population, and inciting insurrection. The anxiety among white Americans was that a race war was imminent.

The domestic forces which significantly influenced the concept of colonization included the abortive-slave rebellion which was headed by Gabriel Prosser in 1800, during President James Monroe's tenure as Governor of the state of Virginia, and the alarming increase in the number of free African-Americans in the United States. Although the ratio of whites to blacks was 8:2 from 1790 to 1800, it was the massive increase in the number of free African-Americans that disturbed the colonizationists. From 1790 to 1800, the number of free African-Americans increased from 59,467 to 108,378, a percentage increase of 82 percent; and from 1800 to 1810, the number increased from 108,378 to 186,446, an increase of 72 percent. While the colonizationists in the South were motivated by racism and fear of slave uprising; the white colonizationists in the North refused to accept the notion of white-black co-esixstance. The final solution was to have this class of people deported from United States.

The views of the colonizationists on this apartheid system was unambiguously clear in their writings. President James Monroe, who was Governor when the abortive attempt was made by the slaves, wrote,: "Unhappily,while this class of people [African-Americans] exists among us, we can never count with certainty on its tranquil submission;" Chief Justice John Marshall wrote that, "The removal of our colour population is I think, a common object, by no means confined to the slave states...;" former President James Madison said that,:"...the free blacks ought to be permanently removed beyond the region occupied by or allotted to a white population;" Henry Clay said,"Of all classes of our population, the most vicious is that of the free colored...If the principle of colonization should be confined to them; if a colony can be firmly established and successfully continued in Africa...Much good will be done;" Francis Scott Key wrote," Any scheme of emancipation without colonization, they [the slave holders] know and see and feel to be productive of nothing but evil...;" former President Thomas Jefferson said that, "Their amalgamation with other colors produces a degradation to which no lover of this country, no lover of excellence in human character, can innocently consent." Ralph Randolph Gurley, one of the leaders of the ACS, and one of the founders of the Liberian settlement, and the person after whom Gurley Street in Monrovia is named, said the following about the abolition of slavery and the ultimate separation of the races, in his book, 'Life of Jehudi Ashmun,' "The friends of African Colonization have thought, that the consent of the South [Southern slave holders] was indispensable for the safe abolition of slavery; that the work should be done with caution and preparation; that circumstances and consequences should be regarded; that a separation of races so distinct as the coloured and white in complexion, habits and condition is desirable for the happiness of both."

And so in 1816, Henry Clay and other leading colonizationist, met in a Washington, D.C. tavern, and agreed to form the American Colonization Society. During that same year, the ACS elected Associate Justice Bushrod Washington as its President; 13 vice presidents were elected including: Speaker of the House Henry Clay, General Andrew Jackson, and Secretary of the Treasury William Crawford. Francis Scott Key was one of the twelve men elected to manage the day-to-day affairs of the Society; and Elias Caldwell was elected Secretary.

According to the ACS constitution, the goal of the colonizationist movement was to assist African-Americans who wanted to voluntarily emigrate to their ancestral home in Africa. However, once African-American leaders heard that slave holders were planning a colony for them in Africa, they met at a meeting in Philadelphia and issued a statement opposing the scheme. Despite that opposition, the ACS went ahead with its plan. To assure the success of this scheme, the ACS and some Southern slave holders formulated an agreement, which required that slave masters would turn over all manumitted African-Americans to the ACS, so that they would be deported to the colony in Africa. Any manumitted slave who refused to emigrate was to be resold into slavery.

In 1818, the ACS commissioned two white Americans, Samuel J. Mills and Ebenezer Burgess, to proceed to England and Sierra Leone, and gather information on the settlement of an African-American colony on the West Coast of Africa. In England, the delegation met, Lord Bathurts, Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs, and His Royal Highness William Federick, President of the African Institution. After gaining the support of the British Government, which was stipulated in a letter to the British Governor in Sierra Leone and leaders of the ACS, Mills and Burgess went to Sierra Leone. Shortly after their arrival in Sierra Leone, Burgess was infected with the fever (malaria or yellow fever) and died. Mills continued the mission, and returned to the United States with positive results. He informed the ACS that the establishment of an African-|American colony on the West Coast of Africa was feasible, even though the Governor of Sierra Leone had warned that land was the collective ownership of the people and was never bought and sold, and that the British Government had tried and failed to buy land from the Africans. Moreover, no deed for the cessation of land had been consummated between the ACS and the Africans. Despite those deficiencies, ACS leaders immediately went to work and began to raise funds for the first African-America expedition to Africa.

In February, 1820, the vessel, "Elizabeth" which was chartered by the American Government, departed with 83 African-Americans for Sierra Leone. It is clear that these African-Americans were either forced to emigrate or were bamboozled into making this expedition. They were led by a white American named Samuel Bacon. Bacon was the principal agent of the United States Government. He was assisted by John P. Bankson. Dr. Samuel A Crozer represented the ACS. Shortly after their arrival all of the white agents and nineteen African-Americans (9 women, 4 men, and 6 children) perished from exposures to various tropical diseases especially yellow fever and malaria.

In 1821, the United States Government again chartered another vessel, the "Nautilus", to carry a group of African Americans to Sierra Leone. This mission was lead by four white Americans: J.B. Winn and Ephraim Bacon represented the American Government; and Joseph R. Andrus and Christian Wiltberger represented the ACS. Andrus and Bacon visited various coastal areas, including present day Liberia, but were unsuccessful in consummating a treaty with the indigenous people. When they returned to Sierra Leone, the fever hit the delegation. Bacon, who was accompanied by his wife, immediately returned to the United States. Andrus and Winn remained in Sierra Leone with their wives and subsequently ddied from yellow fever.

This is Captain Robert F. Stockton of the United States Navy. He acquired the first real estate for African-Americans in Liberia. He was a native of New Jersey, and was later elected United States senator from that state.

Faced with a series of failures and mounting cost, the ACS turned to the United States Government for help. In a favorable response, President Monroe ordered Captain Robert F. Stockton of the United States Navy to the West Coast of Africa. In December, Captain Stockton arrived in Sierra Leone in his newly commissioned vessel, "The Alligator," and proceeded to Cape Montserrado with Dr. Eli Ayres, the ACS agent, to negotiate for land. In a series of incidents, on present day Bushrod Island, Captain Stockton forced King Peter and other indigenous rulers of the cape, at the barrel of a gun, to sign a treaty, which ceded land from the indigenous people to the African-American settlers.

After the departure of Captain Stockton, the Dey, Golah,and Vai warriors formed an alliance and attempted to forcibly evict the Americans. On hearing about the imminent threat to their existence, Dr. Eli Ayres appealed for help from King Sabsu, (He was also called, King Sao, King Boatswain; his real name was "Sao", the "bsu" was the way his people pronounced "boatswain") of Bopulu, the most dominant indigenous leader in the region.

Sabsu was a Mandingo king and a devoted Moslem. He married a Golah woman, who bore him four sons, including Momoru Sao who ruled Bopulu in the 1860s. This union with a non-Moslem was necessary for Sabsu because all the children he had by Mandingo women died. Early in his career, Sabsu served on European vessels as a boatswain, where he got his name. Sabsu was a devout Moslem who had no use for infidels. From his kingdom 100 miles in the interior, which his people called Bokoma, he raided towns and villages from Cape Mount to Grand Bassa, a distance of almost 200 miles, and sold his victims into slavery.

During the 1822 crisis, King Sabsu arrived on the coast with a massive force, and warned the Dey, Golah, and Vai kings, that he would behead anyone who interfered with the Americans. He is reported to have told the Americans:" I promise you protection. If these people give you further disturbance, send for me; and I swear, if they oblige me to come again to quite them, I will do it by taking their heads from their shoulders, as I did old King George's on my last visit to the Coast to settle disputes."

Shortly after King Sabsu departed for Bopulu, the Dey, Golah and Vai warriors attacked the Liberian settlement. The first major battle occurred in the morning, on Monday, November 11, 1822, while the colony was under the leadership of Jehudi Ashmun, a white American from Champlain, New York. In a series battles, no clear winner emerged, until the British Governor in Sierra Leone intervened and consummated an uneasy peace treaty between both parties.

This is Jehudi Ashmun the white American agent who headed the Liberian colony from 1822-1828. Jehudi was a native of Champlain, New York. His wife died shortly after their arrival in Monrovia in 1822; and he died on August 25, 1828, at the age of 35, and was buried in New Haven, Connecticut. It was the African "fever", malaria or yellow fever that killed Ashmun and his wife.

During the ensuing years, the ACS and the American Government continued to send African-Americans to Liberia. In 1824 the ACS drafted a constitution for the colony; in 1839, the colony became a Commonwealth. It was then led by a white Governor named Thomas Buchanan. When Buchanan died from the fever (malaria or yellow fever), he was succeeded by Joseph Jenkins Roberts, the first African-American Governor of the colony. In 1847, after a series of commercial conflicts with British traders, and after the British Government refused to recognized Liberia's sovereignty under the existing modus operandi, Governor Roberts and his comrades, all of whom were successful merchants and were being financially impaired by the British action, ask for and received permission from the ACS to declare Liberia an independent nation. On July 26, 1847, Liberia became an independent nation.

This is Governor Thomas Buchanan, a white American, who became the first Governor of Liberia. Buchanan served from January 1839 to September, 1841. Prior to this appointment, he served as agent of the Pennsylvania and New York Colonization Societies in Bassa Cove. Bassa Cove was later renamed Buchanan in his honor. He died in September, 1841, after he was infected with the "fever" (malaria or yellow fever). He is buried in Monrovia.

To ensure that its racist policy was continued in the new Liberian state, the ACS drafted a constitution for Liberia, under the aegis of a Harvard professor named Simon Greenleaf, which stipulated that: "The great object of forming these Colonies being to provide a home for the dispersed and oppressed children of Africa, and to regenerate and enlighten this benighted continent, none but persons of Color shall be admitted to citizenship in this Republic."

Independence brought severe hardship to the Liberian people. Although hunger and disease had plagued the Liberian colony since its incipiency, independence--which was opposed by the majority of the colonists, but forced upon the people by Governor Roberts and his colleagues--deteriorated the economic condition. The political and economic conditions became even more problematic, when the United States Government refused to recognize Liberia's sovereignty, and when the ACS withdrew its financial assistance. A welfare system managed by the ACS during the colonial days, helped to make the transition especially painful. Prior to independence, the African-American emigrants who arrived in Liberia, were supported for six months, until they could get on their feet. Over the years, this system created a cycle of dependence on the ACS. Many of the colonist sat and waited for food and clothing from ACS warehouses in Maryland, and many refused to economically and culturally divorce themselves from the United States. When Jehudi Ashmun attempted to enforce the six-months rule to the letter, a major rebellion erupted in the colony. Wilmot Blyden, a distinguished West Indian-Liberian, who served as Secretary of State of Liberia and became President of Liberia College during the late nineteenth century, wrote the following about African-American emigrants in Liberia: "The people have really taken no root in the country. They still look to the arrival of one or two vessels from America to supply them with food and to the steamers from England to furnish them clothing not withstanding the vast resources of this country." David F. Bacon, a white American doctor who served the ACS in Liberia said, "to me the most striking circumstance in the character of the colonists, particularly those from Virginia and North Carolina, was their pride in their origin from those states... All their affections and local attachments seem still centered in the land of their birth, which they know to be their true fatherland." This attachment was reflected in all the national symbols. The flag was patterned after the United States flag, the towns and cities were named after ACS leaders: Monrovia, after President James Monroe; Bushrod Island, after Associate Justice Bushrod Washington; Marshall Territory, after Chief Justice John Marshall; the town of Caldwell after, Elias Caldwell; Buchanan after Thomas Buchanan; Gurley Street, after Ralph Randolph Gurley, and many others. Even the Africans who had been recaptured on the high seas and returned to Liberia, who were called Congos, called themselves Americans. Alexander Crummell, said the following about the Americanization of the Congos: "The Congos are apprenticed to our citizens; are remarkably plaint and industrious, and particularly proud and ambitious of being called 'Americans'"

The picture on the right is President Joseph Jenkins Roberts, first President of Liberia. He was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on March 15, 1809, and arrived in Liberia in 1828 with his widowed mother, four brothers and two sisters. He was one of the renowned Liberian-political figures of the nineteenth century. He lead Liberia to independence in 1847; he served as President of Liberia from 1847-1856; and from 1872-1876. However,"Old Gruff," as he was called by his detractors, never excelled in uniting the Liberian people. (Picture, courtesy of the Library of Congress.)

This is ALEXANDER CRUMMELL, one of the towering-Liberian intellectuals of the nineteenth century. Crummell's father, Boston Crummell was an ethnic "Teminee," who was enslaved at the age of 13 and taken to the United States. Crummell and his wife Sarah arrived in Liberia in 1853. He taught at Liberia College, and served as minister in the Protestant Episcopal Church in Monrovia. He left Liberia for good, after the coup d'etat of 1871. Assaulted on the streets of Monrovia by mulattos, he also received assassination threats, and was stabbed in the back by people like Anthony F. Russell, who later became President of Liberia. President J.J. Roberts did everything in his powers to make Crummell's life miserable, including dismissing him from the professorship at Liberia College. Crummell safely returned to the United States with his family shortly after the coup of 1871. In a sermon entitled, 1844-1894, The Shades and the Lights of a Fifty's' Ministry Crummell said, "I landed in Liberia in 1853...I found there great crudities, and anomalies. How could it have been otherwise? Was not Liberia the fruit, the product of slavery? Did not its illiteracy and its immorality spring directly from the plantation."

Internally, the country was divided into four major social blocks. The mulattos, headed by President Joseph Jenkins, dominated political and economic power in the country. They held key government jobs; they were the leading merchants, and they served as trustees of Liberia College. African-Americans and West Indians of pure African descent came next. They had three of the most highly educated men in the country: Edward James Roye, who became President of Liberia in 1870, but was deposed in 1871 and later executed in 1872; Edward Wilmot Blyden, a West Indian emigrant, who was fluent in Greek, Latin, French, English, and many local African languages, taught at Liberia College and became its President, and was elevated to Secretary of State of Liberia; and Alexander Crummell, an Episcopal minister, who taught at Liberia College, and had a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cambridge University in England. Below this group were the recaptured Africans who were called,"Congos." These people had been brought to Liberia by the American Navy, after they were recaptured on slave vessels. At the bottom of the list, were the indigenous Africans who resided on territory and adjacent territory claimed by Liberia.

This is a picture of Edwin J. Roye, as he appeared in the 1860s. He served as Speaker of the House of Representatives; Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; and President of Liberia from 1870-1871. He was overthrown in a civilian coup and assassinated by his enemies. He was the first man of pure African ancestry to be elected President of Liberia. The quality of the picture frame clearly indicates the wealth that Roye possessed. He was considered the richest man in Liberia.(picture: courtesy of the Library of Congress.)

This is Dr. Edward Wilmot Blyden. He served as President of Liberia College, and represented Liberia as its Ambassador to the Court of St James. He also served as Secretary of State; and was a presidential candidate. Blyden was one of the two great Liberian intellectuals of the nineteenth century. Prior to the coup d'etat of 1871, he was beaten like a dog through the streets of Monrovia by a group of mulattoes, and was forced to leave Liberia for Sierra Leone. Rumors circulating in Monrovia indicated that President Roye paid some goons to beat up Blyden, after Roye discovered that Blyden had maintained a sexual relationship with his wife. Additionally, Blyden and President Roberts never got along.

This class system fostered ethnic hatred among the Liberian people. Years before independence, the Liberian colony passed a law which placed indigenous African children who came to live in the colony in servitude. The law stipulated that, " ... no native youth under the age of eighteen shall be allowed to dwell in the families of colonists without being bound for a specified term of years according to the rules prescribed in an act concerning apprentices." This law was in complete contradiction to the colonial constitution which forbid servitude in Liberia. Samuel Williams, an African-American who attempted to start a lumber business in Liberia in the 1860s, said the following about the mistreatment of indigenous Liberians at the hands repatriate Liberians, "They take advantage of the natives and by so doing injure the cause of Christ". Commenting on the ill-treatment received by the "Congos," John Seys, who served as United States Agent for recaptured Africans, said: "That there have been some cases of wrong and oppression and neglect on one part, and ingratitude and treachery on the other, must be admitted. Not every citizen of Liberia has done his duty to these adopted children of the Republic. Some deny them even the few hours per diem to attend school and improve their minds. There have been those who have ill-treated them in other ways." In an independence speech to the Common Council, in Monrovia on July 26, 1870, Alexander Crummell admonished Liberians to respect and assimilate the indigenous people into the Liberian society. He said,:"I fear that we are lacking in that recognition of the native man as a future element of our society, which is desirable as well for our needs, as for his good and God's glory...other races of men in foreign lands, as in America and New Zealand, fall before an incoming immigrant population. But this is not our mission here; and if it were, it is not in our power, that is we have not the ability, to destroy the native...He is willing to serve you; and after being in your service, he carries home with him the 'Spoils' which he has gathered in your family, by observation and experience...Why then should we doubt the full and equal ability of the native man to become all that we are, and do all that we can do? Indeed, I can hardly maintain my gravity while talking to you. For who indeed, are we? Right glad am I that there are no Europeans here today for surely they would see the most ludicrousness of such an address from such a one as I am--and you! Have faith in the native. You have trusted him with goods in trading--trusted yourself unprotected in his sequestered village. Go now to a further length--trust him as a man, fitted to move and act in all the correspondence of nature." In 1875, Minister James Milton Turner the American Envoy to Liberia, wrote the following statement to the United States State Department, about the separatist policy of the Liberian Government: "Thus far the policy practiced toward the aboriginal Africans by such Americans as have emigrated to Liberia has proved little, if any short of down-right failure...the impracticable notion of two distinct and separate classes in Liberia; together with no apparent expectation of absorbing the more intelligent or educated aborigines into assimilation of business and social interests with the so-called Americo-Liberian." Blyden wrote that President Joseph Jenkins Roberts had, "contempt..for the native tribes." He further noted that the Liberians "hate the natives and many do not hesitate to say so. You can see a good deal of that in Mr (James S.) Payne's recent papers."

This is James Milton Turner, American Envoy to Liberia from 1871-1878. He assisted the Liberian Government in getting US Government to intervene militarily in the Liberian-Grebo War of 1876. Yet, throughout his tenure in Liberia, he was never respected by the Liberia leaders. One of the reasons for this treatment was because he was perceived by both sides of the national-political spectrum as interfering in the political battles between the Republican Party dominated by the mulattos, and the Whigs, controlled by the dark-skinned Liberians. In 1871, he was accused of collaborating with Mrs E.J. Roye in allegedly hiding stolen Government funds allegedly misappropriated by the late President Edwin J. Roye, and was called a "nigger". Liberian officials verbally assaulted him when he attempted to carry out the instructions of the US State Department,to collect debt that the Liberian Government owed the American Government. Finally, in 1878, he was forced to leave Liberia, when Liberian officials turned up the heat on him, when he wrote an article in American papers, opposing the whole concept of colonization. Turner traced his ancestry to the Via people of Liberia, and indicated that he was related to Nat Turner, the African-American who led the bloody slave rebellion of 1831. [For more information on Minister Turner, read his biography entitled: "James Milton Turner and the Promise of America" by Gary R. Kremer, published by the University Press in 1991; also read his dispatches to the US State Department, which are stored in the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress.]

It should be noted that class struggle and ethnic hatred was not limited to the Liberian state. Indigenous nations that bordered Liberia were constantly at war with each other. Most of these wars not only resulted in the enslavement of the vanquished, but disrupted Liberian trade with other interior nations, and threatened the national security of Liberia. In 1834, the Liberian colony sent a delegation to Bopulu, about 100 miles, northwest of Monrovia, to negotiate trade and national security treaties with King Sabsu, the head of the Moslem state. Sabsu agreed to supply the Liberian state with cattle, rice, and ivory, but refused to end war with the Golah and Dey nations in the south.

Here is a brief review of Bopulu life in the 1830s: [the Mandingos named Bopulu, "Bokoma," and the Lormas and Belles named it Bopulu]. The town had a population of 3,000; the Kingdom had a population of 10,000; the population included Vai, Lorma, Golah, Mandingo, and Kpelle; the principal languages spoken were Vai and Lorma: the people greeted each other by sayng, "Yakuneh" in Vai or "Oongah" in Lorma or Boday; Islam was the dominant religion of the Bopulu Kingdom, but was predominately practiced by the Mandingos and Vai; the Koran was widely read; the "Leilat el Kadri" the night when the Koran was received, was celebrated; the words, "Allahu akbaru. La ilaha ill allahu " the call to prayer was always heard; the emblem of Islam included: seven guns, three swords, four spears; there were schools established for boys, where the Imam taught them how to read the Koran; they manufactured their own ink in black, yellow, and red; polygamy was generally practiced; adultery was punishable either by enslavement, or the accused was dispossessed of his property; primary diet of the people were fish and rice; weapons of war included: flintlock musket; balls used in muskets were melted down from iron pots; large and powerful bows; quivers with very poisonous arrows, "it was said to be so fatal that if it wounded so much as the tip ends of the fingers it is certain death"; cutlasses; war belts; war coats; powder horns and spears; the consumption of snuff was prevalent in the area; alliances were consummated through the following ceremony: "The rum was emptied into tortoise shell, and each of the other articles, then a foul was held by two men, while a third severed its head, and the bleeding trunk was poured over each person until they were stained by the sacrifice. Numbers ran up, anxious to have their weapons receive a drop [of blood] whilst the contents of the tortoise was drank by way of sealing the obligations entered [into]; " those imprisoned had their ankles safely stapled to a large wood; each town had its own laws; in cases involving life or death, the leading chiefs were summoned to decide; all villages were heavily fenced with timber, and guarded for twenty-four hours; the gates of the town was only opened, when the guest fired a musket in the air, announcing his arrival; the town was lit with palm-oil lamp; the major exports of Bopulu Kingdom included camwood, the wood used to manufacture dye in Europe and America, ivory, hides, rice, and coffee; and because of the slave trade, travelling was very difficult, when you arrived at a town, you were detained, and a messenger was sent to the previous town, to determine if you were allowed free access through their town.

Extreme cruelty was handed out to prisoners who rebelled against the system. Here is the horrific account of the executions of a group of domestic slaves, who attempted to overthrow King Momoru Sou, in Bupulu in 1866: "They [ rebellious prisoners] came down the path naked and in single file, with their hands bound behind them. As the first person came on, the executioner with his broad and gleaming sword ran to meet him, and with dexterous cruelty emasculated him; after allowing him to bleed and beg awhile, he was snatched down to the foot of the tree, his head hacked off and tossed into a ditch on one side of the road; while the yet quivering trunk was thrown into a catfish pond [called Marvo.]...but to the chief of this revolt it was reserved to be buried alive, heels up and head down, and a sharp stake, eight feet long, driven through his body level with the ground, and a tree planted over him."

Despite the extreme cruelty of some of the rulers, the people were generally very friendly to strangers. When an African-American visited the interior of Liberia in the 1860s, he wrote the following about the generosity of the pretty women and the healthy people: "they gave me spacious and comfortable lodgings and commenced a series of hospitalities which, from mere quantity alone, became oppressive." On the general health of the people, he said: "They are an exceedingly healthy people, and of very clean habits. They bathe regularly twice a day and morning, in warm water, besides the intermediate cold water baths they are sure to take at whatever creek they happen to cross in their daily walking. For cleaning the teeth, they use a brush made of rattan."

In Liberia, discrimination and ethnic hatred, made it impossible for repatriate Liberians to develop a unique Liberian identity. Many of the African-American emigrants tried to create a state and a way of life, in complete isolation to the indigenous people who inhibited the land. When they tried to create more space for themselves through the issuance of bogus treaties, a series of battles ensured. In the most serious conflicts, the United States intervened on the side of Liberia. In 1843, Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, the man credited with opening up Japan to the West a few years later, descended on Kru Coast and Cape Palmas with over 700 American marines, in the vessels, MACEDONIAN, SARATOGA, and DECATUR, to punish the Kru and Grebo people for their alleged attacks on American shipping, and to assist Liberia and Cape Palmas in their struggle against the indigenous people in Kru Coast and Cape Palmas. The series of battles was sanctioned by Governors J.J. Roberts of Liberia and John Russwurm of Cape Palmas. In 1875, the U.S.S. Alaska was dispatched by President Ulysses S. Grant to Liberia, after Liberian troops lost a series of battles to Grebo warriors; in 1910, President Howard H. Taft of the United States dispatched the U.S.S. Birmingham to Liberia, when another major war began between Liberian and the Grebo people; and in 1915, President Woodrow Wilson, sent the U.S.S Chester with 500 rifles and 250,000 rounds, to assist the Liberian Government when war with the Kru people began over the hut tax, and the forced recruitment of indigenous-Kru labor by the Liberian Government.

Officers of the USS Chester with Liberian children, when they arrived in Monrovia, Liberia in 1915, to help the Liberian Government win the Kru-Liberian war of 1915. The officers and men of the "Chester" were dispatched to Liberia by President Woodrow Wilson.

In 1930, the Liberia Government was faced with a major political crisis, when the League of Nations appointed the "International Commission of Inquiry into the Existence of Slavery and Forced Labor in the Republic of Liberia", to investigate allegations of slavery and the forced recruitment of indigenous labor by the Liberian Government officials. The commission which had subpoena powers, included Dr. Cuthbert Christy, who represented the League of Nations; Dr. Charles S. Johnson, an African-American, who represented the American Government; and former President of Liberia, Arthur Barclay, who represented the Liberian Government.

What the Liberian government officials practiced was not slavery, but "indentured-servant program" a form of servitude that was practiced in Europe and North America from the 16th to the 18th century. [please read, William Stuart's "White Servitude in New York and New Jersey", Americana, Volume 15, 1921.) The practice was not unique to Liberia. In its final report, the International Commission reported that, "In French and British dependencies, the Belgian Congo,and elsewhere, it is permissible to employ compulsory labor for the building of houses and offices for Government officials." What was unique about the Liberian experience, was the magnitude, intensity, and the application of the evil system.

This picture, which was taken by Sidney de La Rue in the 1920s, (La Rue was an American financial advisor attached to the Liberian Government under the Financial Receivership ) shows indigenous Liberians who were forced to construct roads, under an indentured-servant program, for the Liberian Government. The practice included the capture of indigenous men, who were then used to work on the farms of Liberian Government officials; some were used to build government roads; while others were sent to Fernando Po and Sao Tome to work on plantations, against their will. The evils of the system led to the League of Nations investigation in 1930.

The Liberian Frontier Force(LFF), one of the most ruthless military organizations in Liberian history. This military force was used by the Liberian Government to collect the hut tax from the indigenous people; it was used to capture indigenous men to work on government farms, construct government roads, and contracted out as indentured laborers on plantations in Fernando Po and Sao Tome. This military organization was accused of rape, murder, torture, and harassment of the indigenous people.

In its findings, the commissioners reported the following: (1) "In order to suppress the native, prevent him from realizing his powers and limitations and prevent him from asserting himself in any way whatever, for the benefit of the dominant and colonizing race, although originally the same African stock as themselves, a policy of gross intimidation and suppression has for years been systematically fostered and encouraged, and is the key word of the Government native policy;" and (2), that, "...Vice President Yancy [of Liberia] and other high officials of the Liberian Government, as well as county superintendents and district commissioners, have given their sanction for compulsory recruitment of labor for road construction, for shipment abroad and other work, by the aid and assistance of the Liberian Frontier Force; and have condoned the utilization of this force for purposes of physical compulsion on road construction for the intimidation of villagers, for the humiliation and degradation of chiefs, of captured natives to the coast, there guarding them till the time of shipment [to Fernando Po and Sao Tome.]" Source:{"Report of the International Commission of Inquiry into The Existence of Slavery and Forced Labor in the Republic of Liberia", U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, 1931.}

Shortly after the publication of these findings, President Charles D.B. King and Vice President Allen Yancy were forced to resign; other Liberian leaders implicated were forced to resign; and the League of Nations drew up a plan of assistance which could have, if it had been implemented, eventually abrogated the independence of Liberia. When Liberia refused to accept the League's plan, the major powers, including the United States, refused to recognized the Government of President Edwin Barclay. In 1934, President Franklin Roosevelt restored diplomatic relations with Liberia, after President Barclay implemented some of the measures that were proposed by the League of Nations.

This picture, which was taken in 1944, is a glimpse of Americo-Liberian aristocracy. Sitting from left to right are: former President Edwin Barclay, Vice President Clarence L. Simpson, President William V.S. Tubman, Chief Justice Louis Arthur Grimes, and Former President Charles Dunbar Burgess King. Standing is the cabinet of President Tubman.

The elevation of President William V.S. Tubman to the presidency of Liberia in 1944, marked a watershed in relations between the Liberian people and the indigenous people of the interior. He literally eliminated the 40 mile boundary between the Liberian and the indigenous people of the interior, which was used to contain the indigenous people. He visited the interior and attempted to assimilate the people through his "national integration policy," and he even reverted to wearing indigenous clothing. In one of his addresses, President Tubman discussed the human rights abuses that had been inflicted on the indigenous people by some leaders of the Liberian Government. He said: "As I reflect upon the conditions under which you were living in 1944 when we took office, I can recall how at my first interior Council, you complained of, and I discovered that, District Commissioners were unrestrained in their imposition of fines upon you and your people; that for the most insignificant act your chiefs, wives, and children were humiliated and imprisoned; that you were compelled to bury your manhood and bow down to them as though they were your masters and lords instead of your public servant...I further recall that you could not exercise or enjoy one of your basic rights as citizens to vote for those whom you wanted to represent you; that you were not even represented in the National Legislature; yet, you were compelled to pay taxes like every citizen. I still further recall that there were few roads, if any, running to or through your respective provinces, districts, towns, and villages; that you, your sons, and even your wives, sisters and daughters were compelled to carry hammocks and loads on their heads and backs; that there were no schools; no hospitals; no medical clinics..."

With this populist political sentiment, President Tubman implemented an integration policy, which removed some of the barriers that divided the Liberian people. He implemented an "Open Door Policy," which attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign investment. Thousands of jobs were created not only for coastal Liberians, but for the indigenous people of the interior. He constructed major highways into the interior. For example from Voinjama to Monrovia, which is about 280 miles, it took one month of trekking by the interior people. When President Tubman established motor roads, it took a few hours of driving. Hospitals and schools were constructed for the interior people. The economy experienced extensive economic growth. From 1946 to 1960, the Tubman Administration attracted $500 million in foreign investment; exports rose from $15.8 million in 1948 to $82.6 million in 1960, an increase of 422.8 percent; and Government revenue rose from $32.4 million in 1960 to $69.9 million in 1971, an increase of 115.7 percent.

The downside to this economic miracle was the perennial, yet accurate accusation by critics, that the country was experiencing, "growth without development," a phrase borrowed from Robert Clower's, book entitled "Growth Without Development." In relative terms, the massive increase in income, GNP, and GDP did not match the economic development that was taking place. Huge amounts of government resources were being fleeced by Liberian Government officials. In some instances, the same company that was contracted to build highways in the interior also provided the funding. Multinational corporations imported most of their goods and materials duty free; corporate income tax was only 35 percent; the Government invested huge amount of its resources in companies, via concessions agreements, when a higher corporate income tax on those companies could have achieved the same revenue from those companies; and huge amounts of Government resources were spent on massive public works projects (Government buildings), like the Executive Mansion, the Temple of Justice, or the Capital Building.

Added to the stagnation of economic development was political repression. From 1955 to 1971, President Tubman and the True Whig Party ran the country in an atmosphere of fear and political repression. President Tubman began to build this security network when there was an attempt to assassinate him in 1955. The massive security system, included the Public Relations Officers, "PRO"--program, an army of ordinary Liberians who became the eyes and ears of the Government. During this period, the country went through massive political repression and human rights violation.
These repressive measures began to take hold, when President Tubman's first term of office was about to expire. For the third time in Liberian history, the presidential term of office was amended in the Liberian constitution. In 1951, President Tubman rammed through the True Whig Party-controlled Legislature, an amendment which removed the 1935 clause, that limited the presidential term office to one eight-year term. The new constitutional clause called for eight years for the first term, and four years for succeeding terms of office. The political party that challenge this constitutional amendment was the Reformation Party, which was headed by Didho Twe, an indigenous Liberian from the Kru nation, whom President Tubman called, a "man with premedieval mind.", and the Independent True Whig Party, which was lead by former President Edwin Barclay.

This constitutional amendment was not the only political issue that the opposition Reformation Party challenged. A few years earlier, the Tubman Administration declared Old Kru Town, a public domain, in order to make the area available for the construction of the Free Port of Monrovia. When the Reformation Party and the Kru people protested, President Tubman arrogantly said, "For having razed Kru Town, I have no apologies, explanation or excuse to make."

In 1955, the Independent True Whig Party took on President Tubman at the polls. The standard bearer of the ITWP was a political heavywight--former President Edwin Barclay. President Barclay also received the nomination of the Reformation Party.

The Independent True Whig Party was formed in 1905, to oppose the English Loan of 1906. During this period, the ITWP called itself the "party for the protection of Liberia." Now it was taking on President Tubman. But, history was not on the side of the opposition. When the ballots for the 1955 election was counted, President Tubman scored a lopsided victory. The final results were: President Tubman, 244,873 votes; former President Bar clay, 1,182 votes. This means that President Tubman received 99.5 percent of the vote. The ITWP responded to the outcome by charging the True Whig Party with vote rigging, and lodged complaints with the True Whig party controlled Legislature. The charges were rejected.

On June 22, 1955, both houses of the Legislature met at the Executive Pavilion, to officially inform President Tubman of his reelection. At eight o'clock that night, several shots were allegedly fired at President Tubman. Hon. Daniel Derrick, a member of the Legislature, and William Hutchins, a presidential guard, were wounded. James Bestman, a man who would later play a prominent role in the implementation of the massive security network in Liberia, arrested one Paul Dunbar. Dunbar was indicted for the shooting. The next day, on June 23, 1955, warrants were issue for the arrested of the following people: Nete Sie Brownell, former Attorney General of Liberia and Vice Presidential candidate to former President Barclay; S. David Coleman, former Secretary of the Interior; and Raymond Horace, legal advisor to the opposition parties. The result of the Liberian Government investigation revealed that a "Smith and Wesson" .38 caliber, six shooter was used in the assassination attempt; and that one V.S. Onemega, a Nigerian national, was paid by the opposition parties, to kill President Tubman with witchcraft.

Inauguration day, January, 1956. First snap: President William V.S. Tubman, center; escorted by Secretary of the Interior, Harrison Grisby, left; and Vice President William R. Tolbert, right. Second snap: President and Mrs. Tubman lead the "Grand March" at the inaugural ball.

The attempt to arrest David Coleman ended in death and injury. In a shoot-out with David Coleman and his son John Coleman, five security officers were reportedly wounded in Clayashland. The Colemans escaped, and went to Clay, where they were encountered. On June 27, 1955, Coleman and his son John, were killed by security forces. The casualties on the government side included: one police officer and one security officer killed; and Edwin Smyth, one of the men who would managed the massive security network under Tubman, and four others, were wounded.

June 18, 1968. Ambassador Henry Fahnbulleh, one of the men accused of treason rise in his own defense. This period of Liberian history can only be called an era of "McCarthyism." Mr. Fahnbulleh, who served as Liberia's Ambassador to Sierra Leone (June 1962-March 1966), and was Liberia's Ambassador to Kenya,Tanzania,and Uganda, at the time of his arrest, was accused of the following: friendship with the Communist Chinese Ambassador in Kenya; a card-carring member of the Chinese Communist Party; unpatriotic because he did not celebrate such holidays as "Matilday Newport Day"; having books in his library including: "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," "Liberia Within Independent Africa", and books by Mao Tse Tung, etc. In response to the prosecution charges about the books, Mr, Fahnbulleh said, "I bought all of these books because I wanted to make a library for my children, not because I wanted to make anyone a Communist..."

This attempted assassination set the stage for the implementation of a massive security network and a national paranoia. Eight years after the 1955 incident (in 1963) Colonel D.Y. Thompson, commander of the Liberian National Guard, was arrested for being member of a cabal called the "CLUB", which reportedly planned to overthrow the Liberian Government . In 1968, Henry Fahnbullah, Liberian Ambassador to Kenya; Robert Kennedy, Sr., Superintendent of Lofa County; James Y. Gbyeyea, Superintendent of Bong County; and Gabriel Fangarlow, Superintendent of Nimba County, were all arrested for allegedly attempting to overthrow the Liberian government. They were tried and sentenced to long prison sentences.

This is the picture of three of Africa's renowned leaders who spearheaded the formation of the Organization of African Unity (OUA). They are, from left to right: President Sakou Toure of the Republic of Guinea; President William V.S. Tubman of Liberia, and President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. This picture was taken in 1959, when the three leaders met in Sanniquellie, Nimba County, Liberia, to discuss African unity and solidarity.

On the international arena, President Tubman played a pivotal role in the realization of African solidarity and African independence, when the political wind of change was blowing across the African continent in the 1960s. In 1959, he sponsored the Sanniquellie Conference which was attended by President Sekou Toure of the Republic of Guinea, (Guinea gained its independence from France in 1958), and President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana ( Ghana gained its independence in 1957). In May 1961, the Sanniquellie Confrence was followed by the Conference of African Heads of State in Monrovia. Finally in May 1963, in the midst of the Congo crisis, 32 African heads of state attended the Addis Ababa Conference in Ethiopia, and created the Organization of African Unity (OAU).

In every step of the way, leading to the creation of the OAU, President Tubman played a pivotal role. However, the ideological differences between the three men (Nkrumah and Toure espoused "African-socialism", an ideology whose polity was based on self-sufficiency and egalitarianism, under state control; while Tubman embraced "political pragmatism", a system which promoted economic growth and prosperity based on the capitalist model, but which preserved the interest of the elites) made it impossible to realize the dream of a United States of Africa. This bipolar ideology also permeated the African continent, and further complicated the ideological divide.

The death of President Tubman in 1971 seemed to bring the dawn of a new day in the political life of Liberians. William Richard Tolbert, the 58-year old man who served as a loyal Vice President under President Tubman for nineteen years was sworn in office, after President Tubman died in a London clinic. Tolbert, who was relatively young, by eighteen years, began his reign by taking off the three-piece suit of the Tubman era, and replacing it with a white-safari suit, which subsequently became know as the swear-in suit.

President Tolbert began his presidency by telling the Liberian people, that "never again" would Liberia be consumed by the massive political terror and economic corruption of the past. Tragically, what he did not know, was that by attempting to implement political and economic reforms, he was riding the back of a tiger. In this regard, President Tolbert was to Liberia, what Mikhail Gorbachev was to Russia. In an attempt to reform a defunct political system that he had inherited, political events overwhelmed him, and subsequently and tragically destroyed him and his presidency.

The new President began his term by implementing symbolic changes, which appeared drastic to the old guards and the consecutive. The "PRO," or Public Relation Officers program ( an army of civilians that were the eyes and ears of the government) was eliminated and replaced by an aged pension system; time, which was never observed by Liberians in the public sector, was ruthlessly enforced by President Tolbert ; and, it became forbidden for public employees to use government vehicles for private use.

As President Tolbert set out on a public campaign to rid the Government bureaucracy of corruption, his presidency was buoyed by a massive increase in economic growth. Liberian imports rose from $69.9 million in 1971, to $156 million in 1977; exports rose from $246 million in 1971, to $536.6 million in 1979.

In the midst of all these changes, President Tolbert launched " Rally Time," a fund raising campaign that was intended to raise $10 million, to assist the Government in speeding up rural development projects. Although the objective for raising the funds was considered noble, the methods of raising the money--which became another tax--became very unpopular among the Liberian people. Salaries of Government and private employees were deducted for "Rally Time" without their consent. In 1972, while returning from Voinjama, the capital of Lofa County, in northern Liberia, I was stopped and detained by an immigration officer, because I did not have my ten dollar receipt--the minimum amount that every Liberian was required to pay-- for "Rally Time". Despite this flaw, Rally Time was a success. Part of the Rally Time money was used to renovate the Tellewoyan Memorial Hospital in Voinjama, and some of the money was used to bring about major economic development projects around the country.

The economic boom of this period coupled with "Rally Time" funds assisted the Tolbert Administration in implementing more economic-development projects then any of his predecessors. Yet, the de facto one-party state system, and the poverty of the Liberian people, which President Tolbert struggled to change, continued to tick away, like a time bomb on the Tolbert presidency. During this period, about 83 percent of the Liberian people did not have any utilities, and only 5.9 percent of the Liberian people had indoor running water, plumbing, and electricity; 68.1 percent of the Liberian people lived in mud house and slept on mats; 74 percent of the Liberian people earned less than $50 per month; the increase in the population of Liberia continued to put pressure on the scarce resources of the country. The population rose from 1.4 million in 1971 to 1.7 million in 1978. While this population explosion continued, the Government was faced with the political time-bomb of allowing the outside world to feed its people. Foreign parboiled rice {also locally called "Pusava"} was in higher demand than the locally produced rice. The government attempted to reverse the trend, but the agricultural programs were not achieving the goals. The Liberian people continued to demand more foreign rice, The importation of rice rose from 119.4 million pounds in 1971, to 190.7 million pounds in 1980, an increase of 143 percent.

In 1979, the government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, attempted to encourage local rice production and consumption by increasing foreign rice from $22.00 to $30.00 (U.S dollar.) The opposition lead by MOJA (Movement for Justice in Africa), and the Progressive People's Party (PAL) organized an intensive opposition to the increase. The rumor was that the President was personally benefiting from the increase. On April 14, 1979, a peaceful demonstration against the price increase resulted in hundreds of death, and massive destruction of property. Subsequently, the hatred for the government fueled the violent military coup on April 12, 1980. For more information on the military coup of 1980, please visit the civil-war page.

Upon the ascendancy of the the military regime, political slogans such as, "power to the people," and the "struggle continues," were sung, but the implementation of political and economic change was a quicksand. Samuel F. Doe, the leader of the coup, and his military junta did not only inflict massive human rights violation on the Liberian people, they literally wrecked the Liberian economy. During fiscal year 1983/84, 19.4 percent of Government revenue was allocated to national security; per capita GNP dropped from $580 in 1980, to $450 in 1986; capital flight from Liberia literally removed the United States dollar off the streets and stores of Liberia. The US dollar was replaced by a worthless currency, which Liberians called the "Doe dollar"; and the Government received $461.8 million in loans and grants from abroad, most of which it literally could not account for. For example, in 1986 the Doe Administration could not account for $50 million in United States aid to Liberia. Meanwhile, the national debt rose from $551.9 million in 1980, to $1.1 billion in 1989. The mismanagement of Government funds became so malodorous, that the United States Government resorted to nineteenth century methods by sending out the American accounting firm Arthur Young to audit the Liberian Government. The audits failed, when the Doe Administration refused to let auditors gain access to certain government accounts that were allegedly the private slush funds of the President.

This mismanagement of the Liberian economy was followed by political terror in October 1985, when General Doe stole the general elections and declared himself president. In November 1985, a putsch led by former General Quiwankpa, was ruthlessly crushed by President Doe and the Armed Forces of Liberia, which was dominated by the ethnic Kran. The massive killing spree which followed the putsch, culminated into the 1989-1996 civil war. For further information on the civil war, please visit the civil war page.

The man who currently runs the country is President Charles Taylor. If history is our guide, the country is in mortal danger, both politically and economically. Taylor served as Director of General of General Services Agency, the procurement agency of the Liberian Government Services, and he served as Deputy Minister of Commerce under President Samuel Doe. While serving at Commerce, an investigative report by the "Daily Observer," a Liberian newspaper, accused him of transferring $900,000.00 in Liberian Government funds, to the the account of a dummy company in New Jersey. In 1983, he allegedly fled Liberia for the United States, where he was arrested on and extradition request from the Doe Administration. He allegedly bribed his way out of prison, and is currently wanted by American law enforcement officials.

Although the charges brought against Taylor were reportedly warranted, it is alleged that President Doe's motivation for going after Charles Taylor was spurred by personal antipathy between the two men.

Charles Taylor's record during the civil war does not lend any hope to the easing of tension in the Liberian Government. According to United States State Department documents, President Taylor amassed vast fortune during the war, through the sale of Liberian timber, gold, diamond, iron ore, rubber, and other resources. In a hearing before the United States Congress on June 26, 1996, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, William H. Twaddell said, that, "Charles Taylor who has long controlled the most lucrative areas of the countryside could have upwards of $75 million a year passing through his hands." From 1990 to 1994, the warlords were reported to have stolen over $422 million in Liberian resources, which were sold in Malaysia, France, Belgium, and other European countries.

Please read the web page on the "Liberian Civil War" for more information on Liberia.

Tellewoyan,Joseph.,The Years The Locusts Have Eaten:Liberia 1816-2004. Xlibris Corporation,2005. History of Liberia from 1816 to 2004.To order a copy, go to: Order Book Online from Xlibris Corp.You can also telephone 1-888-795-4274,OR PURCAHSE A COPY ONLINE AT: AMAZON.COM,BORDERS.COM or BARNES&NOBLE.COM

Huband, Mark. THE LIBERIAN CIVIL WAR, Frank Cass Publishers, London.Portland, 1998.
To read this book, is to live the Liberian civil war. The book covers various aspects of the war, from the training of NPFL forces in Libya; arms supply from Burkino Faso; internal struggle for power; to the capture of President Doe at the Free Port of Monrovia.To purchase this book on-line, go to: Huband,Mark. Liberian Civil War. The telephone contact for FRANK CASS is: 1-800-944-6190

Padmore, George A. Memoirs of a Liberian Ambassador, The Edwin Mellen Press, 1996. Ambassador Padmore was appointed Assistant Secreatry of State of Liberia in 1951; in 1955, he served as Acting Secretary of State, when Secretary of State Gabriel L. Dennis Died; and he served as Liberia's Ambassador to the United States from 1956 to 1961. Ambassador Padmore is the brother of Mrs. Antoinette Padmore-Tubman, wife of the late President Willaim V.S. Tubman.

Tolbert, Victoria.LIFTED UP: The Victoria Tolbert Story,Macalester Park Publishing Company, Minneapolis, MN, 1996.The last two chapters of this book is about the horrific assassination of the 19th President of Liberia, on April 12, 1980, from the personal experience of his wife, Mrs. Victoria David-Tolbert. To live the events of the assassination and the extreme suffering that the Tolbert family and the nation endured, you must read this book.

Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. Liberia: A Promise Betrayed.This book covers the repressive regime of the military government of Sergeant Samuel Doe from 1980 to 1985; and includes the ruthless murders that followed the Thomas Quiqonkpa's failed coup of 1985. To order this book, write: Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, 36 West 44th Street, Suite 914, New York, NY 10036.

Bolton, Bill. Just Keep on Walking: An African Odyssey, Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, 1996. This book is the personal account of a white American who was stationed in Liberia as an agricultural specialist assigned to USAID. He was in Liberia when the 1980 coup took place; he married a Liberian and started a pig farm along the St. Paul River; and in 1990, he lived to experience some of the horrors of the Liberian civil war during the early days.

Dunn, Elwood and Tarr, Byron. A NATIONAL POLITY IN TRANSITION. The Scarecrow Press, Inc., Metuchen, NJ, 1988. The strength of this book is the wealth of experience that these authors have in the Liberian Government, and the utilization of that knowledge in the critical analysis of the period 1971 to 1985, when Liberia underwent major political transition and turmoil. Dr. Elwood Dunn served as Minister of State for Presidential Affairs in 1979 when the rice riots occurred, and Byron Tarr served in major policy making positions in the government.

Kremer, Gary R., JAMES MILTON TURNER AND THE PROMISE OF AMERICA. University of Missouri Press, Columbia and London, 1991. This book is the biography of Turner. Two chapters of the book are devoted to his tenure as US envoy to Liberia, which lasted from 1871-1878.

Korvah, Paul Degein., A HISTORY OF THE LOMA PEOPLE. O Books, Oakland, Calfornia, 1995.

Tucker Bridge, links Bushrod Island, in the foreground, with the business district in the background. Bushrod Island was named after United States Associate Justice Bushrod Washington, nephew of George Washington, and the first President of the American Colonization Society. At the center of the bridge is the disputed Providence Island, which Dr. Eli Ayres claimed he purchased from the indigenous people. The dispute lead to a series of wars between the indigenous people and the settlers.