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Admin moved page What was the United States role in founding Liberia? to What was the United States role in founding Liberia
[[File:Memcertf.jpg|thumbnail|300px|left|Member Certificate for the American Colonization Society signed by Henry Clay]]__NOTOC__
The founding of Liberia in the early 1800s was motivated by the domestic politics of slavery and race in the United States as well as by U.S. foreign policy interests. In 1816, a group of white Americans founded the American Colonization Society (ACS) to deal with the “problem” of the growing number of free blacks in the United States by resettling them in Africa. The resulting state of Liberia would become the second (after Haiti) black republic in the world at that time.
====First Settlers colonize Scherbo Island====
[[File:Monrovia,_Liberia_-_panoramio_(77).jpg|thumbnail|left|250px300px|Monorovia, 2013]]
In 1820, 88 free black settlers and 3 society members sailed for Sierra Leone. Before departing they had signed a constitution requiring that an agent of the Society administer the settlement under U.S. laws. They found shelter on Scherbo Island off the west coast of Africa, but many died from malaria. In 1821, a U.S. Navy vessel resumed the search for a place of permanent settlement in what is now Liberia. Once again the local leaders resisted American attempts to purchase land.