The American Colonization Society was founded in 1816, in part due to alarms over the violence of the
Haitian slave revolution and its aftermath, which resulted in independence for that country in 1804. Fears were raised about the effects of emancipation of slaves in the United States. In this period, both slaveholders and abolitionists collaborated on the project to transport free blacks to Africa, though for different reasons. They suggested it was "
repatriation," but by this time most African Americans were native-born in the United States, and said they were no more African than white Americans are British. Slaveholders believed that free blacks threatened the stability of their slave societies.
Nat Turner's rebellion of 1831 panicked Southerners, who feared another slave uprising and seizure of the country, as had recently happened in
Haiti. Abolitionists, many of them ministers, hoped to persuade slaveholders through their religion to
manumit (free) their slaves and also worried about the discrimination faced by free blacks in the United States. Those who supported relocation to West Africa believed (or said they believed) that the African Americans would create there better polities; first as some vague type of colonies, then countries, away from white prejudice, discrimination, and economic exploitation. While thousands of free blacks did relocate to the colonies, most free African Americans opposed this project, claiming the right of their birth in the United States and wanting to improve their lives there. The U.S. state of Maryland had an increasing proportion of free blacks among its African-American population. During the first two decades after the
American Revolution, about 25% of blacks were freed, in part because slaveholders were inspired by the war's ideals. Practically, changing labor needs meant that fewer slaves were required. In the next two decades the number of free blacks increased markedly in the northern part of the state, and many congregated in
Baltimore, the state's and the South's largest city. Nowhere near that number were actually transported.
Settlement of Cape Palmas mission, circa 1840. The first area in the future Republic of Maryland to be settled by the Maryland Colonization Society was
Cape Palmas, in 1834, somewhat south of the rest of the American colony. The Colonization Society organizers thought they could establish new trading ties by relocating African Americans to West Africa. The colony was named Maryland in Africa (also known as Maryland in Liberia) on February 12, 1834.
John Brown Russwurm In 1836 the Colonization Society appointed its first mixed-race governor,
John Brown Russwurm (1799–1851), who served as governor for more than a dozen years, until his death. Russwurm encouraged the immigration of
African Americans to Maryland in Africa, and supported agriculture and trade. He had begun his career working as the colonial secretary for the
American Colonization Society between 1830 and 1834. He also worked as the editor of the
Liberia Herald. He resigned this post in 1835 to protest America's colonization policies. In 1838, a number of other
American settlements on the west coast of Africa united to form the
Commonwealth of Liberia, which declared its independence on July 26, 1847. Two American visitors in 1851 reported the population of "Maryland in Liberia" to be between 900 and 1,000, with four churches and six schools. The colony of Maryland in Liberia remained independent, as the Maryland State Colonization Society wished to maintain its trade monopoly in the area. On February 2, 1841, Maryland-in-Africa declared its statehood and became the State of Maryland. In 1847 the Maryland State Colonization Society published the
Constitution and Laws of Maryland in Liberia, based on the
United States Constitution.
Declaration of Independence, and annexation by Liberia On May 29, 1854, the State of Maryland declared its independence, naming itself Maryland in Liberia, with its capital at
Harper. It was also known as the Republic of Maryland. It held the land along the coast between the
Grand Cess and
San Pedro rivers. It lasted three years as an independent state. Soon afterward, local tribes, including the
Grebo and the
Kru, attacked the State of Maryland. Unable to maintain its own defense, Maryland appealed for help to Liberia, its more powerful neighbor. President Roberts sent military assistance, and an alliance of Marylanders and Liberian militia troops successfully repelled the local tribesmen. The Republic of Maryland recognized that it could not survive as an independent state, and following a
referendum, Maryland was annexed by Liberia on April 6, 1857, becoming known as
Maryland County. ==Legacy==