The Library of Congress

Maps of Liberia, 1830-1870

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Go directly to the collection, Maps of Liberia, 1830-1870, in American Memory, or view a Summary of Resources related to the collection.

Maps of Liberia, 1830-1870 provides the basis for several projects that foster historical thinking skills. Tracking the development of Liberia with the maps, students can practice chronological thinking, while through role play they can develop their historical comprehension and skills of analysis and interpretation. By debating how to influence change, students can improve their ability to analyze issues and make decisions. And by researching the history of the Liberian government, students can improve their historic research skills.

Chronological Thinking

Maps of Liberia affords students the opportunity to track through maps the development of a nation. Students can begin by reading the special presentation History of Liberia: A Time Line. Then have students search the collection on Liberia looking at maps in chronological order. Students can look for evidence in the maps of change over time representing the growth and maturation of what would become the country of Liberia.

By comparing the oldest maps in the collection to the most recent ones, students can answer these and other questions:

• What new lands did the colonists acquire over time?
• What new settlement areas were started by the colonists? Did all the original settlements still exist by the time the last map was created?
• What evidence is there of an increased population?
• What political boundaries were established over time?
• What new information did the settlers have about the quality of the land to grow crops?
• What nautical information did they gain?

Liberia and its vicinity, 184-?.

Map of Liberia, 1870.

Historical Comprehension

The first colonists traveling to Liberia knew very little about the land they were settling. Colonists who followed later had the benefit of the knowledge and experiences of these pioneers. To gain a comprehension of colonists' experiences, students can assume the role of someone traveling to Liberia in the 1830s. Students can use this 1830 map of Liberia or search the collection on Liberia, looking at maps created by the 1830s. These maps will show the students what the colonists may have learned about Liberia prior to leaving America.

Have students use the map to answer the following questions: What can you determine about the climate from the map? Were there native peoples living in Liberia? What rivers run through the land? What information does the text at the top of the map provide? How much land does it say is under the jurisdiction of the American Colonization Society?

Map of the West Coast of Africa from Sierra Leone to Cape Palmas, including the colony of Liberia, 1830.

For more insight into what a person might know before leaving for Liberia, students can also browse the exhibit The African-American Mosaic section entitled Colonization and search on American Colonization Society in African-American Perspectives, 1818-1907 and From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1824-1909.

Historical Analysis and Interpretation

In this exercise, students will learn to analyze and interpret the settlement patterns depicted on a map and to determine the possible accuracy of the maps. Prior to looking at the maps, have students complete the following activity to gain perspective on settlement patterns and mapping. Students can first consider the factors that might influence their own decisions of where to settle a new land.

• What adverse conditions would they avoid?
• What natural resources and landscape features would they look for?
• Remind the students that the colonists were arriving by ship from the sea. How might their means of travel affect the location of settlements?

Next, present students with a sketched map of Liberia identifying only geographic features and the location of neighboring peoples, indicating if they are friendly or not. Use the early map of Liberia below as a base map by tracing the features other than the location of settlements.

Map of Liberia, West Africa. 183-?.

Ask the class to assume the role of colonists on a ship traveling across the ocean to a foreign land. They have only this map and must decide where to land their ship and where to build their first settlement. Have them represent their decisions on the map. They should draw in their travel route, location of settlements, what buildings they will construct at those sites and what trails or roadways they might build. Pause in the process here to discuss mapping accuracy with the students by asking these questions:

• In reality, how might their travel route vary from the one they have drawn?
• How easy might it be to remember, document, and describe the travel route to others?
• When they wrote in their settlement locations, how precise were they? Did they draw to scale? Did they indicate the scale on the map?
• How much accuracy did they use in drawing their land travel routes?
• Of course, the students are not actually in Liberia to gather all the needed data to be extremely accurate. If they had been there between 1830 and 1870, what tools would have been available for data collection? What information would they collect? How accurate could they assume it would be?

Now show students the original map with the settlement locations. They will first be interested in noting if they chose to settle the same areas as the colonists. Do the settlements appear to have been influenced by the same factors the students considered? Are there additional factors not considered by the students?

Then students can interpret the accuracy of the maps based on their responses to the questions above. Have them analyze the information provided on the map by looking for such things as a legend and scale. If these are not provided, what might the student assume about the map's accuracy? Based on their responses to the questions above, how likely is it that the map has inaccuracies? What might they be? How does this affect the way you read the map? If one doubted the accuracy of a map, one could compare it to others. Have students compare their map to others in the collection. What are the similarities and differences? If there are differences among the maps, how can we determine which is most accurate?

Historical Issue-Analysis and Decision-Making

If you believe a system is flawed, do you fight within the system to change it or do you leave the system and start another, creating the ideal you had envisioned? This debate is at the heart of the movement to colonize Liberia.

Assign students one of these groups to represent:

• African Americans in the South or North, freed or enslaved
• Whites in the South or North
• Senator from New York
• Senator from South Carolina
• British merchant in Africa

Create a scenario in which the year is 1865 and $100,000 is available from the federal government to invest in aiding African Americans. The class must debate how to use the money. Based on the roles they were assigned, they can choose a side in the debate, either for or against the colonization of Liberia by African Americans. Students can then form alliances with others who have similar goals or views as their own. Students who are undecided will moderate the debate.

Allow each group in the debate to prepare and present a statement in support of their decision. To assist in their presentations, have students read the arguments of others by searching on Liberia and American Colonization Society in African-American Perspectives, 1818-1907 and From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1824-1909. Students can also use the maps in the collection to substantiate their arguments. Can they point to success in the colonization effort that would warrant more resources? Or do they see failure that would discourage wasting federal funds by assisting the colonists?

Map of Liberia, 1850.

Allow each group time to form a rebuttal and to present it to the class. Afterwards, the undecided students can ask questions of the debating parties towards forming their own opinions. Following the debate, take a vote to see how the class believes the money should be spent based on the options suggested by the class. Have the class come out of character and discuss what their experiences were in debating this issue. What frustrations did they encounter? How did their opinions change from what they believed before the debate?

After the debate, students can use Maps of Liberia to consider the historical record and analyze the decisions people made. How would students judge the success of the efforts for equality for African Americans? To inform their analysis, students can Browse the collection Geographic Location. Do the maps depict thriving communities? By 1867, 13,000 emigrants had arrived in Liberia through he efforts of the American Colonization Society. Are these numbers adequate measures of success? What was the experience of African Americans remaining in the United States? Students can browse these collections for perspective:

The African-American Experience in Ohio, 1850-1920
African-American Mosaic
African American Odyssey
African American Perspectives, 1818-1907
First-Person Narratives of the American South, 1860-1920
From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1824-1909

Based on their research into these collections, have students discuss how they might modify their original decision as to how to spend the federal money.

Historical Research Capabilities

Coupling Maps of Liberia with research of the governing bodies of Liberia will provide students an opportunity to develop their historic research capabilities. Have students create a timeline of the governing bodies of Liberia using the special presentation History of Liberia: A Time Line and books such as those listed in the selected reading list and in the Read More About It.

The 1853 map of Liberia below indicates when parcels of lands were purchased to expand Liberia. Using this map and outside resources, students can identify who ruled over which lands at different times in the history of Liberia. Which leader saw the greatest growth in Liberia? What factors contributed to this growth? Have students consider both domestic and foreign factors such as land acquisition policies and the American Civil War.

Republic of Liberia, 1853.