WEBVTT

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(laid-back music)

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- Do you know that the first 10 presidents

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of the Republic of Liberia
were all black Americans?

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The country Liberia became Liberia.

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It was 1820 when the first
group of American-Liberians

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we consider sailed on the ship Elizabeth

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toward the coast of Africa.

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It was during the abolition of slavery

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where the ACS was founded,

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the American Colonization
Society, a group of Americans

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who championed the
cause to take immigrants

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like free slaves from the
west to the African continent.

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But the first ship that sailed to Africa

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settled on the Sherbro island,

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which of course is considered
today as Sierra Leone.

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The settlers found at
the time Sherbro Island

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had a lot of swampy land.

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So they were dying from malaria
because of mosquito bites.

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Dr. Eli Ayers, who happened
to be the representative

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of the ACS, he championed the cause

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along with US Navy Lieutenant Stockton.

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They both decided to sail
along the coastal region

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because they had to find a better land

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for the settlers to not
die of mosquito bites.

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And they came across the Green Coast.

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During those days, the
Green Coast was referred

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to as Cape Mesurado, which
of course today is Liberia.

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So when they found the land

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they met indigenous who were Bassa, Dan,

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and the Dei people.

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So Stockton and Dr. Eli Ayers

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negotiated with these indigenous people

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for the land because
they wanted coastal land.

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Some of those land were forcibly persuaded

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from the indigenous, and
some of them who were

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the chiefs and kings took
sugar, salt, gunpowder, rum

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from settlers who came to the continent

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in exchanged for their land.

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So that was how the settlers
established this country

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we know today as Liberia.

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So Liberia, after its independence,

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the first governor, or the first president

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we say today, was Joseph Jenkins Roberts.

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He was African American from Virginia.

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We, in the era where we are talking about,

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unity amongst black
people, African Americans

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and indigenous Africans.

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So I think it plays an integral role

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for us to understand the root of Liberia.

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Liberia happens to be colonized

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by the American Colonization Society

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and got it's permanence
as an independent nation,

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the first African Republic, 1847.

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(music continues)