LIBERIA, a Negro republic on the Grain Coast of West Africa. Founded in 1822 by American philanthropists for the settlement of freedmen who wished to return to their native land, or to enjoy political and social privileges then denied them in the United States, it remained for twenty-five years under the tutelage of the mother country, but on the 26th July 1847 it was declared independent. In 1848 it was recognized as a sovereign state by Great Britain, which aided it in various ways, and by other Continental powers, and finally in 1861 by the United States. Its nominal boundaries are from the river Jong, a tributary of the Sherbar, in 7° 35' N. lat., 12° 20' W. long., and the river San Pedro, in 4° 45' N. lat., 6 3 40' W. long., a distance of 380 miles, the limits of the state in the interior being usually stated at from 80 to 100 miles eastward, though this is unsettled, and the entire area of the country at 24,000 square miles, or 1000 miles less than Holland and Belgium combined. Like that of northern Guinea generally, the Liberian shore is low, but the country rises towards the interior, and is well-wooded and watered by numerous streams. The climate is, however, hot and unhealthy for Europeans, though of late years it has been improved by drainage, and is considered superior to that of any part of the neighbouring coast. The soil is fertile and well suited for the growth of tropical crops, such as cotton, rice, sugar, indigo, yams, groundnuts, bananas, ginger, cassava,pine-apples, cocoa-nuts, limes, oranges, tamarinds, and the Liberian variety of coffee held in such high esteem. These products, in addition to palm oil, form the main support of the inhabitants, who in return import arms, ammunition, tobacco, salt provisions, implements of husbandry, cutlery, ...British cottons, and other manufactured goods. Coffee, palm oil, palm-kernels, rubber, ivory, dye woods, hides, ivory, arrowroot, sugar, cocoa, ginger, and rice form the principal articles of its commerce, which is carried on chiefly with Great Britain, Holland, Hamburg, and America. Copper, gold, iron, and deposits of gum-copal exist, but they are not worked; and all the large wild animals have long since been killed or driven out of the woods. Stock can be kept in the higher lands. The government is modelled on that of the United States, and consists of a president, and a congress composed of a senate of eight members elected for four years, and of a house of representatives of thirteen members elected for three years, in addition to a supreme court, and a cabinet of the American type. One additional representative is given for each additional 10,000 inhabitants by which the population may increase. Military service in the militia is obligatory on every male citizen between the ages of sixteen and fifty, but there is no standing army. There is no established church, and all faiths are equally tolerated. The state is divided into four counties (Mezurada, Grand Bassa, Sinoe, and Maryland), and these again into townships, each 64 square miles in area. There are a number of little villages, but the only place of any consequence is Monrovia, the capital, containing 13,000 inhabitants, and in appearance very like a town in the southern United States, but in no way remarkable except for the large number of churches within its bounds. Besides Monrovia the chief ports are Robertsport, Marshall, Edina or Buchanan, Greenville, Sesters River, Sasstown, and Harper, and in 1881 foreigners were further permitted to trade at any point to the north of Robertsport. The present population of the republic (1882) comprises 18,000 civilized negroes, chiefly of American origin, and 1,050,000 half-wild natives, some of whom are adopting a settled life, and conforming to the habits of their tamed countrymen. Among the more interesting tribes are the Veis, the Bassas, the Krus, and the Mandingoes. The American Methodist Episcopal mission dates from 1833, the American Episcopal from 1834, and that of the American Baptists from 1835. The revenue of the state was returned at September 30, 1875, as 111,457 dollars, chiefly derived from customs, the national debt being 500,000 dollars, contracted in England in 1871. Of this neither principal nor interest has been paid. Socially and politically the state cannot be pronounced a marked success. The negroes in America display little desire to throw in their fortunes with it, now that they are free to go whither they list, nor do the barbarous tribes on the border of the republic seem to admire the black parody on a white man’s government, which for sixty years has been presented to them. There is now and again a small immigration from the United States, but the Liberian civilization, cut off from the benefit of intercourse with a higher and broader culture, is apt to deteriorate, while neither the climate nor the laws and social surroundings are ever likely to attract many white men to its shores. It is, however, only fair to add that, though internal disorder is too often the rule, the state shows an appreciation of education and religion, and a keen desire to stand well in the good opinion of the powers with which it has relations by accredited representatives. It has formed treaties with most of the European countries, and with Hayti and the United States; and, though it has not paid its debts, successive Governments are in the habit of registering vows to meet this first obligation of a nation towards its neighbours. British coin and an irredeemable paper currency are the money chiefly in circulation, but all accounts are kept in United States dollars and cents. The weights employed are also British, except that gold from the interior is bought and sold by the usano = 16 akis = 16,000 cowries = 314 ’ 76 grains troy. The gondar-ardeb (7 ’ 74 imperial pints), the massuah-ardeb (2 ’ 32 imp. gals.), and the kuba (1 ’ 788 imp. pints) are also in common use.
See Gurley’s Life of Jehudi Ashman, 1835; Stockwell, The Republic of Liberia, 1868; Wilson, JVcst Africa, 1856; Hutchinson, Impressions of JVcst Africa, 1858; Bitter, in Zeitschrift far allgemeine Erdkunde, vol. i., 1853; Brown, Countries of the JVorld, vol. vi. pp. 123-127, 1881; Bowen, Central Africa, 1857; Themas, JVcst Coast of Africa, 1860; “Die Negerrepublik Liberia,” in Unsere Zeit, vol. iii., 1858; U.S. Consular Reports, 1881.
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