Page 171 - LD215 History of the Church in Africa A4 final

Nineteenth-Century Challenges and Progress

example of Great Britain in the Sierra Leone experiment. In 1816, the
American Colonization Society was formed with the goal of repatriating
emancipated slaves outside of the United States. The concept was
promoted by ex-slaves who wanted to return to Africa as well as others
with mixed motives. It was supported by white slave owners who were
apprehensive about a free black population. By 1820, the number of
freed slaves had risen to more than 250,000. “However, although
theoretically free, prejudices more powerful than legal theory continued
to suppress the liberty of this new social class” (Sanneh 1983, 90). The
ex-slaves were searching for identity and significance.

A number of concerned Christians decided to found a settlement in
West Africa. In 1818, the Reverend Samuel Mills of the American Bible
Society and Dr. Ebenezer Burgess of the University of Vermont decided
to take a survey trip. After their return, they persuaded President James
Monroe to provide for American Blacks to establish a settlement in
Africa. For reasons of their own, they decided not to settle the ex-slaves
in Sierra Leone, but we will not examine the motives for this decision.
In any case, American officials, who were authorized to secure land,
arrived at Cape Mesurado in December of 1821 and began negotiations
with King Peter. Sanneh describes their inept efforts:

The Americans…floundered badly in the diplomatic quicksands
of chiefly protocol. Worn down by King Peter’s delaying tactics
and impatient to force a bargain, Lieutenant Stockton produced
a pistol and pointed it at the head of the petrified king.… The
king capitulated and accepted the terms imposed on him. By that
measure, the Americans acquired, as they were to boast later, $1
million worth of land for a paltry $300 worth of trinkets, food,
guns, and rum. (1983, 91–92)

Developers intended to name the first settlement Christopolis, the
City of Christ—a name that sounded like something Augustine might
have proposed. However, political minds prevailed, and it was named
Monrovia in honor of the American President James Monroe. Isichei
details some of the settlers’ response to their new condition:

Some of the Settlers were fourth- or fifth-generation Americans.
They no longer spoke an African language and they clung to

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