Rule of Americano-Liberians of Liberia

In the 1800s, a movement within the US was to relocate the freed slaves back to their alleged homeland in Africa. The US congress approved of the movement, and thousands of slaves moved to West Africa. Once in West Africa, the slaves became the Americano-Liberians. The Americano-Liberians named the region Liberia, and they established an American style government (that is why the Liberian flag is extremely similar to the American flag). The Americano-Liberians, shocking to those with a romanticized view of freed slaves, adopted their former master's views on racism and slavery. Americano-Liberians adopted the practice of plantations similar to their former masters. They enslaved the indigenous tribes as their white masters enslaved them, and the Americano-Liberians believed that they were racially superior to the local tribes. The Americano-Liberians  totally excluded the native tribes from Liberia's government, despite the fact that the native tribes made 95% of the population. This mistreatment lead to conflict between the former slaves and the local tribes. In the 1910s, wild tribes that were in theory only under the control of the Liberian government started to raid neighboring Sierra Leone (under British control) and the French controlled Ivory Coast [Herbert, 2002]. The raids of the wild tribes outraged the French and British governments, and they threatened to invade Liberia if the Liberian government can't maintain the marauders. The American government under Theodor Roosevelt sent the 1st black officer in the US army George Young (along with a few other officers) to aid the Liberian government. The American officers created the Liberian Frontier Force (LFF), a Liberian infantry battalion. Young and the LFF manged to subdue the marauders. As a result, Liberia became one of the few African countries that did not become dominated by Europeans. The Americano-Liberian government existed until 1980 when a Krahn (one of the local tribes) Sargent named Samuel Doe overthrew the then Liberian president William Tolbert. Tolbert was disemboweled, and his cabinet was tied to poles and shot. Doe's practice of favoritism towards the Krahns allowed Charles Taylor (Taylor however was Americano-Liberian) to take advantage of the agitated Mano and Gio tribes. Mano and Gio tribesmen made up the bulk of Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL). Taylor's war against Doe's government is called the 1st Liberian Civil War, and I have covered it in this blog several times.