The African colony of Liberia was founded by the United States for former slaves and their freedmen descendants.

The colonization effort had widely disparate backers -- from Marcus Garvey and the Back-to-Africa Movement, to white Americans who were nervous of the prospect of freed black slaves living amongst them, and skeptical that they would fit into "their" society.

Around 13,000 African Americans would cross the Atlantic to live in, what was hoped to be, a kind of utopian homeland for blacks, free of racial problems.

Yet, when the freed American blacks arrived in Liberia, they met quite a bit of hostility from the indigenous African ethnic groups already living there. This was their land, after all. The Americo-Liberians (as they came to be known) quickly realized that they had little in common with the Africans around them -- they spoke different languages, had different customs, different ways of life, and most importantly, different religions. The Americo-Liberians cherished their Christianity, and would eventually come to see it as one of their defining traits and a sort of emblem of their superiority. They were also much lighter skinned than the indigenous Africans. The Americo-Liberians were the product of hundreds of years of a culture (back in America) of race and skin color which prized lighter skin over dark. As the two groups increasingly kept to themselves, the Americo-Liberians also came to see their own lighter complexion as yet another marker of superiority.

Sadly, and not without some bitter irony, the colony founded by free African Americans to be a kind of utopian homeland for black people, free from racism and slavery, wound up being just as segregated and race-conscious as the American South they were fleeing. Over time, the Americo-Liberians established themselves in all positions of power and authority in the colony, as a separate and superior caste over all the other indigenous Africans in Liberia, who made up the large majority of the population. Non Americo-Liberians didn't gain citizenship until 1904. Until 1980, Liberia was ruled as a one-party state dominated by powerful Americo-Liberian families, when a violent military coup toppled the last Americo-Liberian regime.

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Here is a podcast that delves into this history of Liberia. It's an episode of "Backstory" called American Exodus. Scroll down to locate the pertinent segment, titled "Liberty in Liberia?" This is a really wonderful podcast, by the way, should you not be aware of it. I highly recommend it. Backstoryradio.org