Met by the Love of Liberty by Wegmann, Andrew N.; Whitaker, James Andrew; Lambert, Shawn P.;

Long description:

Initially founded as a colony of the American Colonization Society in 1822 and declared an independent republic in 1847, the Republic of Liberia has challenged scholars across disciplines for almost as long as it has existed. Despite its territory being the home of Indigenous peoples for centuries, Liberia was imagined as a plan to relocate people of color primarily from the United States to West Africa as settler colonists. It then became a nation dominated by its original African-American founders and their descendants, who became known as Americo-Liberians. This group has shaped the political identity, social structure, and cultural standards of Liberia well into the 20th century, creating a remarkably complex legacy that both sparked and, in some ways, survived nearly two decades of civil conflict from which the nation is still rebuilding.

Met by the Love of Liberty is an exploration of this complicated history, from Liberia's transatlantic origins to its complex and conflicted present. This collection of innovative essays emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach, combining African studies, anthropology, archaeology, history, linguistics, and cultural studies to produce a unique dialogue between the history of Liberia's national founding and its diverse contemporary historical memory and create a new, multifaceted understanding of Liberia's development and contemporary moment.

Bringing together essays from leading scholars on Liberia's history and culture, Met by the Love of Liberty breaks new ground for discourse on how Liberia and other similar nations and communities can be studied today, telling a story of movement, displacement, national creation, and cultural and political memory and identity.

Table of Contents:

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Foreword, by Jo M. Sullivan
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Parallax of Americo-Liberian History and Memory, by Andrew N. Wegmann, James Andrew Whitaker, and Shawn P. Lambert
Part 1: History
1. The Monrovian Palimpsest: Race, Science, and American Identities in the Founding of Liberia, by Andrew N. Wegmann
2. Providentialism and White Imagination in the Construction of Liberia and the American Colonization Movement, by Ruth Vida Amwe
3. Becoming Liberian in an American Settlement, by William E. Allen
Interlude: Interview 1: From ""Country Boy"" to ""Congo Man"": An Americo-Liberian Adoptee Voice
Part 2: Commemoration
4. Mirrored Mythology: ""Molly Pitcher,"" Matilda Newport, and the Imagery of Early Settler Women in the Formation of Liberian National Identity, by Marie Stango
5. Birth of a Nation: Matilda and Liberia, Memory and History, by Eric Burin
6. Commemorating African Diaspora Heritage: An Exploration of Liberia's National Days, by Luisa Schneider
Interlude: Interview 2: The Love of Liberty Met Me Here: An Indigenous Sapo Voice
Part 3: Legacies
7. Before They Were Settlers: Material Culture from Prospect Hill in Mississippi to ""Mississippi in Africa,"" by Shawn P. Lambert, Andrew N. Wegmann, and James Andrew Whitaker
8. The African American Component of the Liberian Settler English of Sinoe, by John Victor Singler
9. Historical Memory in Sinoe County, by James Andrew Whitaker
Index