Thread by @ManjaKoi

Did you know their was a short lived country in Africa called Maryland they was totally independent?

#Liberia 🇱🇷 #Maryland #History a thread 🧵…

In the 1850s a society called the Maryland colonization society wanted to repatriate its enslaved black population back too west Africa
As the freedmen made it too the windward coast and formed their own settlement they grew tired of the Maryland society and declared Independence

in 1853. The decision to cutoff ties with the United States was unanimous.
The new countries interest turned to more local affairs such as wiping out the local slave trade in the area.
The African American settlers where initially welcomed by their…

local African brothers the seaside Grebo. Both groups traded with each other and prospered in the new town of Cape Palmas.

But some of the local rivals preferred the slave trade with white slavers.

With their local Allie’s they went too war with the rival slave traders but they

where not weak. These chieftains where armed with guns through the slave trade and they still outnumbered the Marylanders and the seaside Grebo.
The people of Maryland called for outside help. They sent a letter to President JJ Roberts of the new republic of Liberia. Telling…

him about their cause to end the slave trade. JJ Roberts sent a Liberian militia from Monrovia to aid the young state.
The Liberians launched a joint military operation with the Marylanders and defeated the slavers. In 1857 Maryland held a referendum agreeing to join Liberia 🇱🇷

The settlers ended the slave trade but they also took majority control in the coastal trade.
This caused resentment among the indigenous people with bad relations with the Marylanders causing some resentment.
Despite this, these events would lead too a long period of peace in…

the area. The governments presence was only by the coast and indigenous society’s existed untouched in the interior.

Both the indigenous people and the repatriates traded with each other and prospered. This era would end when the Liberian government sought full control of the…

Interior of the country in the early 20th century.
Despite now being completely part of Liberia Maryland is still its own county in the country and maintains a unique identity with its own enthusiasts groups and dependents of the first settlers still living there.

End of thread 🧵

Thanks for reading and remember that Liberian history is complicated. Not only where the indigenous people not all one group but the settlers where also made up of multiple factions. Old Liberia was a complex political scene.

Thanks for reading!👋🏿

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