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Collection Maps of Liberia, 1830 to 1870

About this Collection

This collection of Liberia maps includes twenty examples from the American Colonization Society (ACS), organized in 1817 to resettle free black Americans in West Africa. These maps show early settlements in Liberia, indigenous political subdivisions, and some of the building lots that were assigned to settlers. This on-line presentation also includes other nineteenth-century maps of Liberia: a map prepared for a book first published in the 1820's by ACS agent Jehudi Ashmun, a map showing the areas in Liberia that were ceded to the society by indigenous chiefs, and a detailed map dated 1869 by a man thought to be the black American explorer Benjamin Anderson.

In American Memory:

The African-American Perspectives collection includes nine pamphlets which include descriptions of a history of the commencement, progress and present condition of the American colonies in Liberia and a speech delivered at the sixty-sixth anniversary of the American colonization society in 1883.

America's First Look into the Camera contains images relating to the American Colonization Society, including portraits of Rufus Anson, the first president of Liberia and Urias A. McGill, one of four McGill brothers who ran a very successful business in Liberia.

In Exhibitions:

The African-American Mosaic is an on-line Library of Congress resource guide for the study of black history and culture. The site provides text and images concerning Liberia colonization and Personal Stories and American Colonization Society New Directions.