Slaves helped built America
By: Dahn Borh
Ladysmith, WI
February 21, 2002

Sadly, Liberian history is replete with similar occurences.  The
Americo-Liberian exported the same concept and principle.  When under
heavy
pressure from the French and the British, the Liberian Government
extended
its influence into the hinterland under Arthur Barclay at the beginning
of
the last century, they saw "free" human resources.  They coerced the
natives
to work for them for free.  They carried loads over long distances for
soldiers and government employees, while providing their own foods and
medications.  The natives were forced to tap rubbers (native trees) in
the
interior and carried the products down the coast without pay. The
natives
were forced to build motor roads with cutlasses, axes, diggers and
shovels
through the thick forest and hills of Liberia, without compensation.
These
abuses became open and glaring during the King administration.  Natives
were
seized and sent to Fernando Po (now called Bioko and part of Equatorial
Guinea) to work on Cocoa plantation while the Liberian Government
received
their wages.  The league of Nations charged King and his Vice President,

Allen Yancy, for slave labor and they both resigned in 1930.

The most notorious and brutal of the government officials were District
Commissioners George Dunbar of Sanniquellie and C. C. Dennis, Sr. of
Tappeta, both in the former Central Province now called Nimba county.
They
forced the natives to carry their vehicles from Careysburgh (the highway
at
the time stopped in Careysburgh) to Sanniquellie and Tappeta
respectively.
When the vehicles got there, the natives built roads to use-all for
free.
Many died while constructing the roads.

Despite King's resignation, forced labor continued in Liberia until
William
R. Tolbert outlawed it in 1972, 40 years later.



Dahn Vonyon Borh
N4103 WSH 27
Ladysmith, WI 54848
e-mail  [log in to unmask]
ph. 715-532-4363

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