The Price of Liberty

by Claude Andrew Clegg III

In nineteenth-century America, the belief that blacks and whites could not live in social harmony and political equality in the same country led to a movement to relocate African Americans to Liberia, a West African colony established by the United States government and the American Colonization Society in 1822. In The Price of Liberty , Claude Clegg accounts for 2,030 North Carolina blacks who left the state and took up residence in Liberia between 1825 and 1893. By examining both the American and African sides of this experience, Clegg produces a textured account of an important chapter in the historical evolution of the Atlantic world.

For almost a century, Liberian emigration connected African Americans to the broader cultures, commerce, communication networks, and epidemiological patterns of the Afro-Atlantic region. But for many individuals, dreams of a Pan-African utopia in Liberia were tempered by complicated relationships with the Africans, whom they dispossessed of land. Liberia soon became a politically unstable mix of newcomers, indigenous peoples, and "recaptured" Africans from westbound slave ships. Ultimately, Clegg argues, in the process of forging the world's second black-ruled republic, the emigrants constructed a settler society marred by many of the same exclusionary, oppressive characteristics common to modern colonial regimes.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

330 pages, Paperback

First published April 26, 2004

Reviews

[Matthew Rohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is fantastic history of the efforts of the American Colonization Society to send black Americans to Liberia throughout the nineteenth century, but mostly focusing on the antebellum years. It is incredibly detailed and well sourced, particularly in discussing the records of the expeditions themselves, and deftly weaves together the history of American slavery, free African Americans in the US, and life and conflict in the new Liberian settlements. This book did what a lot of the best research does - taught me a lot while making me excited to learn more about the topic in a broader scale

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely well-researched, but also super dense. I learned a lot, but it could be a slog.

[Brent · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dense and in-depth study of the relation between Liberia and the U.S., with lots of historical, demographic, anecdotal, and sociological analysis.