Vol. XXI, No. 9 WASHINGTON September, 1910 



ATHOMAL 

 ©(SMAIPIHm® 



NOTES ON THE ONLY AMERICAN COLONY 



IN THE WORLD 



By Edgar Allen Forbes 



Wi^/i Photons; rctphs by the Authof 



LIBERIA is an American colony." 

 This brief sentence is not as com- 

 Jmonplace as it looks. An Amer- 

 ican colony? Of course. Was it not 

 founded by the American Colonization 

 Society, in conjunction with the United 

 States Government, on land ''acquired by 

 purchase from the lords of the soil"? 

 Nobody else participated in its founding ; 

 even the West Indian settlers came at a 

 later period. 



As a republic it has a declaration of 

 independence, a constitution, and a flag, 

 all modeled closely after our own, and 

 its people have never claimed kinship 

 with any other hemisphere but ours. As 

 a matter of fact, Liberia is the only place 

 in the world where the American people 

 have established a colony made up mainly 

 of Americans. And yet, up to the time 

 of Secretary Root, the most that an 

 American Secretary of State would ad- 

 mit was this: ''To the United States it 

 is an object of peculiar interest.'' 



Liberia is unique in another respect : 

 it is the only part of the black man's 

 continent that is now governed by the 

 black man himself. All Africa is Euro- 

 pean except Abyssinia, Tripoli, Morocco, 



and Liberia, and the people of the first 

 three are not negroes. 



To one who has wandered about in 

 Africa and realized that mission schools, 

 Standard Oil, and Singer sewing ma- 

 chines are there the only reminders of 

 the existence of an American republic, 

 Liberia is a startling change. Elsewhere 

 in Africa the United States is merely a 

 geographical fact, and a fact of no con- 

 sequence ; its currency is good only here 

 and there ; its colloquial language is an 

 unknown tongue ; its most familiar insti- 

 tutions are as foreign as a Fourth of 

 July celebration in Russia. 



But sit with me on the balcony of the 

 American Legation in Monrovia and re- 

 member that you are in Africa. This 

 little capital, like the Monroe Doctrine, 

 bears the name of a president of the 

 United States. This main street, the 

 Pennsylvania Avenue of the capital, has 

 the name of Ashmun, who lies buried in 

 New Haven, Connecticut. Yonder la- 

 goon, Stockton Creek, which leads into 

 the Saint Paul River, commemorates an 

 officer of the United States Navy. The 

 little strip of land beyond it, Bushrod 

 Island, got its name from Bushrod Wash- 



