Manifest Liberia: The American Colonization Society and the Formation of Liberia

The country of Liberia did not exist until 1821 when a boat arrived from New York, carrying members of a Christian organization called the American Colonization Society and Black families who sought solace from a society that continued to discriminate against black communities B2294 due to their skin color even though they were no longer under the chains of slavery. They were to start a new society, a Black Republic, on the lands that their ancestors were taken from years before. These families wanted to bring western culture, such as Democracy and Christianity, of the United States to their new country but this leads to important questions, such as what about the cultural groups that already existed in the region? How do the two parties interact and how does that shape how the country is formed? How did the interaction with prior European traders shape the region into what it was in the nineteenth century? With the development of the Liberian state, a new social and political identity of Americo-Liberians is established within the region. The Americo-Liberians established themselves on the top of the political and social hierarchy, allowing them to push the platform of Christianity and Western Culture within the country in a region populated by various cultural groups such as the coastal Vai and the Grebo in the Hinterland who have been existing in region for decades.