The first popular history of the former American slaves who
founded, ruled, and lost Africa's first republic
In 1820, a group of about eighty African Americans reversed the
course of history and sailed back to Africa, to a place they would
name after liberty itself. They went under the banner of the
American Colonization Society, a white philanthropic organization
with a dual agenda: to rid America of its blacks, and to convert
Africans to Christianity. The settlers staked out a beachhead;
their numbers grew as more boats arrived; and after breaking free
from their white overseers, they founded Liberia--Africa's first
black republic--in 1847.
James Ciment's "Another America "is the first full account of this
dramatic experiment. With empathy and a sharp eye for human
foibles, Ciment reveals that the Americo-Liberians struggled to
live up to their high ideals. They wrote a stirring Declaration of
Independence but re-created the social order of antebellum Dixie,
with themselves as the master caste. Building plantations, holding
elegant soirees, and exploiting and even helping enslave the native
Liberians, the persecuted became the persecutors--until a lowly
native sergeant murdered their president in 1980, ending 133 years
of Americo rule.
The rich cast of characters in "Another America "rivals that of any
novel. We encounter Marcus Garvey, ""who coaxed his followers
toward Liberia in the""1920s, and the rubber king Harvey Firestone,
who""built his empire on the backs of native Liberians.""Among the
Americoes themselves, we meet the brilliant""intellectual Edward
Blyden, one of the first""black nationalists; the Baltimore-born
explorer Benjamin""Anderson, seeking a legendary city of gold""in
the Liberian hinterland; and President William""Tubman, a
descendant of Georgia slaves, whose economic""policies brought
Cadillacs to the streets of""Monrovia, the Liberian capital. And
then there are""the natives, men like Joseph Samson, who was
adopted""by a prominent Americo family and later presided""over the
execution of his foster father during the""1980 coup."
"In making Liberia, the Americoes transplanted""the virtues and
vices of their country of birth. The""inspiring and troubled
history they created is, to a""remarkable degree, the mirror image
of our own.
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