By C. Cecil Dennis III
Released 17-Nov-2025
The Foundations of Liberia: Questions and Context
Did Americo-Liberians govern Liberia for 130 years? Who are Liberians? What are the facts before 1820? Was there a place called Liberia before 1820? If so, who lived there, and if not, how did we get here? Where did Liberia come from?
Long before the “Returning People,” known as Americo-Liberians, arrived in the 1820s, there was no place, land, or country called Liberia. However, there was a region called the “Pepper Coast” or “Grain Coast.” It functioned as a trading center where captured people were auctioned into slavery, destined for Portugal, Britain, Spain, the Netherlands, and France. The transatlantic slave trade was controlled by European nations that established coastal outposts for the purchase and transport of enslaved people.
Portugal was the first European nation to purchase African people as slaves. While they traded along the Pepper Coast/Grain Coast, they primarily operated in Angola. Denmark also participated in the transatlantic slave trade, and the United States was a major recipient and participant. Although the Pepper Coast/Grain Coast was not a country before 1822, it was not solely a site for the capture and auction of slaves; other significant negotiations took place in Christopolis, which was home to Indigenous people before the founding of Monrovia around Cape Mesurado.
The Original Indigenous inhabitants of the “Pepper Coast” or “Grain Coast” were the Bassa people, an Indigenous ethnic group belonging to the Kwa-speaking peoples. Their migration, along with other Kruan people like the Dei, Kru, Gola, and Vai, is estimated to have occurred between the 10th and 15th centuries. These groups are the original inhabitants of the region. The Bassa People (Ethnic Group) were the original owners of Cape Mesurado, now Montserrado County (Bushrod Island along the Atlantic coast). They are the largest Indigenous group residing in the capital city, Monrovia.
Pistol Diplomacy and Land Acquisition
The American Colonization Society (ACS), which established the settlement for the Returning People or formerly enslaved from the United States, purchased only Cape Mesurado on December 15, 1821, which became known as Montserrado County. The ACS did not colonize Cape Mesurado; the territory was established solely for Americo-Liberians (Returning People). The deal was negotiated by ACS Agent Dr. Eli Ayres and U.S. Navy Lieutenant Robert F. Stockton. The Buyers (ACS) purchased the land from local leaders and chiefs of the Dei and Mamba tribes, including King Peter, King George, King Yoda, and King Long Peter.
As a son of an Indigenous mother and diplomatic father, I must point out that many have spoken incorrectly about the sale of the land. Although the agreement was controversial, it was not for trivial goods. The payment was in goods (items exchanged included muskets, tobacco, clothes, powder, and rum), which were enjoyed by King Peter, King George, King Yoda, and King Long Peter and their people in exchange for a strip of coastline about 130 miles long and 40 miles wide, which included the entire Cape Mesurado.
The total value of the goods received by King Peter, King George, King Yoda, and King Long Peter from the ACS Agents is said to have been less than $300 United States Dollars at the time. The purchase is said to have been secured under some duress, as Lieutenant Stockton famously coerced King Peter into the agreement, and King Peter then encouraged King George, King Yoda, and King Long Peter to accept the deal. King Peter often described the transaction with the ACS Agents as a “Pistol Diplomacy” Agreement.
The Naming of Liberia and Its Early Expansion
After the ACS purchased Cape Mesurado on December 15, 1821, the first group of settlers arrived in April 1822, marking the true beginning of the Returning People’s settlement. At this point, there was still no nation or place called Liberia or Monrovia. Two years after the first successful settlement, in 1824, the purchased territory was formally named Liberia, deriving from the Latin word liber, meaning “free.” The capital was also named Monrovia, in honor of U.S. President James Monroe, a supporter of the ACS effort.
Liberia / Liberians
The ACS only purchased the coastal land (130 miles long and 40 miles wide), which included the entire Cape Mesurado, and they named this area Liberia, changing Cape Mesurado to Montserrado by 1835–1839. Therefore, there were Liberians living in the place they called Liberia (the 130 miles long and 40 miles wide strip). Around that same time (1835–1839), some Liberians (Americo-Liberians, the Returning People), known as the Young Men’s Colonization Society of Pennsylvania, migrated to the Bassa Cove (now part of Buchanan), and another group went to Sinoe in 1843, establishing both as part of the new Liberia.
At this time, the settlers (Americo-Liberians, living in the 130-by-40-mile area) were governed by ACS Agents; they had not yet declared themselves a nation. The settlers declared themselves an independent nation on July 26, 1847. This date marks the adoption and signing of the Liberian Declaration of Independence, which established the Commonwealth of Liberia as the sovereign Republic of Liberia. They declared themselves independent from the control of the ACS, which had secured the land for them.
Joseph Jenkins Roberts, a free-born African American settler from the United States, was elected as the first President of the new Republic in 1848. Thus, the only places that were part of this new independent country were Montserrado, Grand Bassa, and Sinoe, as they were members before the independence in 1847. So, in 1848, Liberia elected its first president and negotiated for Grand Cape Mount to join Liberia in 1856, and Maryland joined in 1857. The government of the new Liberia was established in 1848. All other counties joined this new Liberia later.