Was Liberia founded by former slaves? How did they get there and who helped them?

Question

Also, why does their flag closely resemble the U.S. flag? I would think the Liberians would be insulted the close resemblance.

Answer 1

Hopefully this will help (I am a History major by the way and am getting my ideas from class notes and the book "Ordeal by Fire" by McPherson, 44-45) :

I'm warning you: This is a long long answer!

The African country of Liberia was not found by former slaves. Initially Liberia was in essence a culmination of ideas devised by a number of central American figures in the American Colonization Society (ACS) in 1817. The ACS was a response to the Jacksonian ideas and white prejudices who feared that letting African Americans free would cause the whites to lose their jobs to a so-called "lesser" race, as well as demolish the society classes among those living in the American south. The white in the South saw the AAs as a threat to their high status and would therefore place the rich aristocrats to a loser soceioeconomicnlevel, which included the lower white class and African Americans who did the "dirty" jobs in society.

Therefore this left America in a predicament. What to do with the African Americans? Some people wanted them free, others not. The solution developed in 1817 by the American Colonization Society was a completely new and seemingly perfect plan.

The ACS's members in the group included Henry Clay and the nephew of George Wahington. The ACS obtained parts of West Africa and founded the country of Liberia as a haven for free African Americans (AA). The group planned to pay for the AA's travel and living expenses, where the ACS believed was the AA's "homeland". However, since the generation of AAs were not from Africa; they were most likely the 3rd, 4th, or maybe 5th generation of Africans to live in America, the AA in 1817 had absolutely no desire to live there ("what do we have in common with the Africans?" thought).

The ACS's development did nothing to help the AA in America. Liberia became an independent republic in 1847. By 1860 less then ten thousand AAs were living in Liberia. In the end the country idea of sending the AAs back to their "homeland" was a fluke and only brought on more opposition to freeing slaves in America.
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As far as the flag question goes, I imagine it would look like our flag because it was set up by Americans (the ACS).

Answer 2

The nation we know now as Liberia was founded my both free-born Blacks and ex-slaves from America. There were native Africans already there though, which is just one source of the continuing troubles the nation has known. No one asked them if it was OK.

The American Colonization Society was the force originally behind the establishment of a foreign nation where free Blacks from America might be sent. It was seen by many as an answer to the race question, and was championed by several US Presidents, including Madison and Lincoln.

Answer 3

It was founded by former slaves. The U.S. helped. I believed it was founded by the freed slaves from the Amistad.