Why Liberia Never Became the Bastion of Freedom Hoped for by the Back-to-Africa Movement

I Blame Woodrow Wilson, Princeton University, Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, and the League of Nations

Liberian Capital Bldg. David Stanley, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

The Republic of Liberia is on the West Coast of Africa, and its official language is English. Though the Portuguese, Dutch, and British colonized parts of Liberia, the imposition of the English language came from American colonizers and the American Colonization Society.

Liberia is bordered by Sierra Leone to its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean to its south and southwest. The population today is 5.5 million, and about twenty indigenous languages are spoken. Liberia was the first African republic to proclaim its independence and is Africa’s first and oldest modern republic. The capital and largest city is Monrovia.

Burmesedays, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

The American Colonization Society (ACS) was formed in 1816 by Robert Finley and Samuel John Mills. Finley was born and raised in Princeton, NJ. He became a pastor and a trustee at Princeton University, where he taught for several years. Many of…