Alfred H. Stone Collection
Volume: 33

8. George R. Stetson, The Liberian Republic as It Is (Boston: A. Williams & Co., 1881). (27 p.)

Pessimistic assessment of Liberia as a good place to send African Americans. The author offers a bleak perspective of the country in terms of its suitability for colonization because of its unhealthy climate. He also notes the incipient conflict in Liberia between colonists from the United States and African people who are natives of the country. The author concludes that further colonization is not warranted. “We shall be wise if we accept the condition imposed upon us, and do not persist in crowding on the shores of Liberia, ship loads of poor, ignorant and improvident Negro laborers, to die or to degenerate to a state nearly approaching their original barbarism, in the vain hope that we shall thus evangelize Africa.” (The collection has another copy of this pamphlet in volume 16 [no. 3].)