The Liberian settlers and the campaign against the slave trade 1825-1865

Abstract

As soon as a militia force was organized, it began to play a prominent role in the suppression of the slave trade within the territorial limits of the colonial settlements. The campaign against the slave trade gave the settlers an opportunity to acquire more and more territories and also to establish their jurisdictional authority over the Africans. On many occasions the slave trade was used as an excuse to crush African resistance to the Americo-Liberian rule. The colonial militia, with the assistance of the American or, at other times, the European naval vessels, defeated the Africans again and again so that the settlers were able to dictate treaties forcing the Africans to cede their lands. The good intentions of suppressing the slave trade were vitiated by territorial aggrandizement on the part of the settlers. Whatever measures they adopted towards the extinction of the slave trade in the Liberian littoral were supported by a speedy mobilization of a well-drilled and well-armed militia. At this time, 1824, the militia was completely under the Agent of the colony, who recruited and drilled all the able-bodied men selected from the immigrants and the recaptured Africans (l). The total strenght of the militia was estimated at 100 men, armed with American-made muskets, cannons, and other types of guns.