The_Open_Door_deel1

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the other - to the disadvantage of the latter. As will be clear
after reading the rest of this chapter this is explained by (i)
the historical background of the introduction of the Open Door
Policy, and (ii) the historical background of the founding of the
Republic.
The Settler Economy
The colonists who in 1847 had founded the Republic of Liberia
actively encouraged the arrival of more colonists from the U.S.A.
and from the Caribbean Islands. Also (white-dominated)
Colonization Societies in the New World promoted the "repatriation"
of coloured and black people. As stated before these
societies were not only motivated by altruism. The rise in the
number of free black people worried many whites in the U.S.A.
(In 1820 the number of free black and coloured people had since
1790 quadrupled to nearly a quarter of a million - out of a total
black population of nearly 1.8 million - whereas the total
population of the U.S.A. numbered about 9.6 million) (1).
Generally, these immigrants can be divided into three groups:
1. freed slaves and/or their descendants from the U.S.A., 2.
freed slaves and/or their descendants from the Caribbean Islands
(the West Indies), and 3. the recaptured Africans intercepted
from slave vessels bound for the plantations in the New World by
the U.S. and British Navies. The people belonging to this third
group especially became known as "Congoes" as many originated
from Central Africa, particularly the Congo River Basin. These
immigrants were, contrary to those from the New World, not
culturally uprooted. They had been torn away from their natural
and social environment but had never been exposed to non-African
cultures before arriving in Liberia. Liberia was one of the three
places where recaptives were taken. The other two were Freetown,
established in 1787, and Libreville, founded in 1849. Before the
Civil War in the U.S.A. 5,722 recaptured Africans were settled
in Liberia by the U.S. Government, while in the 1860's another
5,000 were landed (2).
Most of them engaged in agriculture and some of them had a
successful political career, e.g. Daniel Ricks, who was elected
to the House of Representatives in 1885, William Brown, Thomas
Berrian, Alexander Mars and Abayomi Karnga (3).
The immigrants from the U.S.A. primarily came to Liberia to
leave a racist country and/or to christianize the Africans (4).
Before the U.S. Civil War nearly 19,000 persons of negro descent
came to Liberia, including the nearly 6,000 recaptives mentioned
above - with financial support of the U.S. Government (5).
Reportedly, most colonists from the U.S.A. did not come
voluntarily to Liberia although notably in 1832 and 1833 (after
the Turner insurrection, 1831) and after 1847 the number of
voluntary emigrants increased. Out of 11,909 emigrants who came
from the U.S.A. to Liberia up to 1866, 4,541 had been born free,
344 had bought their freedom, and 5,957 had been set free so as