At the conclusion of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” several characters sail away for the African colony of Liberia. But what happened after that? Resettlement, or colonization, of former slaves had gained traction in the Antebellum period, and prominent supporters included Henry Clay and President Abraham Lincoln. After the war, however, colonization efforts faded, since most freed slaves decided to stay in the United States.
For many Americans, the history of Liberia is therefore a brief aside in the story of slavery in America. But in “Another America: The Story of Liberia and the Former Slaves Who Ruled It,” author James Ciment tells the whole story of the few who went. This narrative, though largely gloomy, contains lessons for every American to consider. For what happened in Liberia after settlers first arrived in 1820 is hardly common knowledge. Amidst the complexity, however, one main idea informs Ciment’s text: there is a profound irony to Liberia’s short history.
Liberia was born of a strange confluence of motives, among them imperialism, capitalism, and racism. Consequently, the Liberian identity is hard to decipher. It was never truly a colony and not much of a nation-state, since, in both geographical size and population, it was and remains very small. Yet the country presents a microcosm of America. Its violent saga illustrates how a nation formed on idealism can lead to terrible practical results.
Though a diverse group of settlers, natives, mulattoes, Northerners, Southerners, former slaves, and manumitted slaves populated Liberia, American culture influenced them all deeply. But compositional differences still bred conflict, both among the groups of American settlers as well as between the settlers and the natives. The mulattoes quickly formed an elite class known as the “Americoes.” Under these rulers, Liberia became subject to one-party control early in its history and, in a deeply ironic twist, eventually became entangled in the slave trade that was so much a part of the culture of West Africa.
Liberia has never had a truly free government. Yet notions of liberty surrounded its settlement. Idealism persisted in the reformers who tried to make changes in the long decades of autocratic rule. A desire for freedom, though mixed with a lust for power, motivated the rebels who plunged the country into a bloody chaos after a 1980 coup. Despite their good intentions, elections were fraudulent, and nepotism dictated appointments in the closely-connected families of Liberia’s elite.
“Another America” tells a dismal tale of the oppressed becoming the oppressors. This can help to provide a perspective on U.S. history since, though full of wrongdoing and mistakes, it does not have the same futility as Liberia’s. As Ciment explains, “Being in Africa, and not of it, proved an impossible proposition in the end.” Liberia was formed upon too many paradoxes. This isn’t how Harriet Beecher Stowe would have wanted the story to end.
At the conclusion of the book, Ciment quotes early Liberian pioneer Daniel Peterson: “It is a pleasant country. . . the sufferings of slavery are nowhere to be seen, all men enjoying their rights and liberties under their own vine and fig-tree, with none to make them afraid.”
As Ciment points out, even in the midst of all the corruption, Liberia “enshrined that vision” of liberty. But does it still mean something to declare an ideal of freedom, even without bringing that idea into reality? “What is meaningful about Liberia’s history?” Ciment’s narrative asks this question but does not answer it.
