Americo-Liberians
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (150,000-200,000) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|
Liberia United States |
|
| Languages | |
|
Liberian English Liberian Kreyol language Merico |
|
| Religion | |
| Protestantism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Sierra Leone Creole and African Americans |
Americo-Liberians are a Liberian ethnicity of African-American, Afro-Caribbean, and liberated African descent. The sister ethnic group of Americo-Liberians are the Sierra Leone Creole people, who shared similar ancestry and related culture. Americo-Liberians trace their ancestry to free-born and formerly enslaved African Americans who immigrated in the 19th century to become the founders of the state of Liberia. They identified there as Americo Liberians. (Some African Americans, following resettlement in Canada, also participated as founding settlers in Sierra Leone and present-day Côte d'Ivoire.)
Later in Liberia, these African Americans integrated 5,000 liberated Africans called Congos (former slaves from the Congo Basins, who were freed by British and Americans from slave ships after the prohibition of the African slave trade) and 500 Barbadian immigrants into the hegemony. Unlike the Sierra Leone Creoles, Americo-Liberians rarely intermarried with indigenous West Africans.
The colonists and their descendants led the political, social, cultural and economic sectors of the country; they ruled the new nation from 19th century until 1980 as a dominant minority. From 1878 to 1980, the Republic of Liberia was a one-party state ruled by the Americo-Liberian-dominated True Whig Party and Masonic Order of Liberia.
"The love of liberty brought us here", was the motto of some 13,000 persons who crossed the Atlantic to create new settlements on the Grain Coast of West Africa between 1817 and 1867 with the aid of the American Colonization Society. The early settlers practiced their Christian faith, sometimes in combination with traditional African religious beliefs. They spoke an African American Vernacular English, and few ventured into the interior or mingled with local African peoples. They developed an Americo-Liberian society, culture and political organization that was strongly influenced by their roots in the United States, particularly the country's Southeast. Today, the Americo-Liberian population numbers about 150,000. Americo-Liberians were credited for Liberia's largest and longest economic expansion, especially William V. S. Tubman, who did much to promote foreign investment and to bridge the economic, social, and political gaps between the descendants of the original settlers and the inhabitants of the interior. Most of the powerful old Americo-Liberian families fled to the United States in the 1980s after President William Tolbert was assassinated in a military coup.
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Wikipedia