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A quantitative analysis of Liberian colonization from 1820 to 1843 with special reference to mortality1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Tom W. Shick
Tom W. Shick
Affiliation:
San Jose State College
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Extract

It is well known that during the eighteenth century and most of the nineteenth century the problem of mortality limited the European presence in West Africa. Disease and death in appalling proportions plagued whites who settled along the coast. Phrases such as ‘the white man's grave’ popularized theories concerning survival in West Africa that were based mainly on race. The belief that black people by virtue of their race would fare better than whites in Africa affected certain historical events. Hence religious groups began to train blacks in the Caribbean for missionary work and then sent them to Africa, while other groups such as the American Colonization Society encouraged black people to emigrate back to Africa. The present study is a quantitative examination of the black population that emigrated to Liberia through the American Colonization Society from 1820 to 1843. Particular attention is given to their mortality experience.

Although a total of 4,571 emigrants arrived in Liberia during the 1820 to 1843 period, by the year 1843 only 1,819 emigrants were still living in the settlements. The overwhelming reason for the Liberian population decline, despite constant additions throughout the period, was a high death rate after arrival in Liberia. By examining the various characteristics of the population such as age, sex, place of origin, place of arrival and the like, a clearer picture of mortality in West Africa emerges. A picture which seems to have little relationship to race per se, but rather to the ways in which disease environments in isolated areas affect incoming populations.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , January 1971 , pp. 45 - 59
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1971

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References

2 Franklin, John H., From Slavery to Freedom (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1967), 184–5.Google Scholar

3 Foster, Charles I., ‘The Colonization of Free Negroes in Liberia, 1816–1835’, The Journal of Negro History, xxxviii (1953), 41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Two major works on the American Colonization Society: Fox, Early L., ‘The American Colonization Society, 1817–1840’, Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, v (1919), Vol. 37.Google ScholarStaudenraus, P. J., The African Colonization Movement (New York: Columbia University Press, 1961).Google Scholar

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6 Both the IBM cards and programme cards will be on deposit in the Memorial Library of the University of Wisconsin, Madison Campus.

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10 Personal communication from Professor Norman Ryder, University of Wisconsin, Sociology Department.

11 Personal communication from Professor Norman Ryder.

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