 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (July 2023) |
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| Total population | |
|---|---|
| ~150,000[1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Languages | |
| Religion | |
 Protestantism, Catholicism (minority) | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Sierra Leone Creoles, Black Nova Scotians, Gold Coast Euro-Africans, Atlantic Creoles, Afro-Caribbeans and African Americans |
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| African Americans |
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Americo-Liberian people (also known as Congo people or Congau people),[2] are a Liberian ethnic group of African American, Afro-Caribbean, and liberated African origin. Americo-Liberians trace their ancestry to free-born and formerly enslaved African Americans who emigrated in the 19th century to become the founders of the state of Liberia. They identified themselves as Americo-Liberians.[3]
Although the terms "Americo-Liberian" and "Congo" had distinct definitions in the nineteenth century, they are currently interchangeable and refer to an ethnic group composed of the descendants of the various free and ex-slave African American, Caribbean, recaptive, and Sierra Leone Creoles who settled in Liberia from 1822.
The designation "Congo" for the Americo-Liberian population came into common usage when these African Americans integrated 5,000 liberated Africans called Congos (former slaves from the Congo Basin, who were freed by British and Americans from slave ships after the prohibition of the African slave trade) and 500 Barbadian immigrants into the Americo-Liberian identity.[4][2] Under Americo-Liberian leadership, the country was relatively stable, though the Americo-Liberians and indigenous West Africans maintained largely separate existences and seldom intermarried.[5]
In addition to indigenous Liberian chiefs and royal families, upper class Americo-Liberians and their descendants led the political, social, cultural and economic sectors of the country; alongside indigenous Liberian elites, upper class Americo-Liberians ruled the new nation from the 19th century until 1980 as a small but dominant minority. From 1878 to 1980, the Republic of Liberia was a de facto one-party state, ruled by elites of both the indigenous and Americo-Liberian-dominated True Whig Party and Masonic Order of Liberia.[6]
- ^ "Americo-Liberians". BlackPast.org. 16 June 2009. Retrieved 16 June 2009.
They are an estimated population of 150,000 [Americo-Liberians] out of the 3.5 million people in the nation.
- ^ a b Cooper, Helene, The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood (United States: Simon and Schuster, 2008), p. 6
- ^ Liberia: History, Geography, Government, and Culture, Infoplease.com
- ^ "About this Collection - Maps of Liberia, 1830-1870". The Library of Congress. Retrieved 1 February 2016.
- ^ "Settlement of Liberia and Americo-Liberian Rule". PeacebuildingData.org. Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. Archived from the original on 11 October 2018. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
- ^ "President William V. S. Tubman, 1944–1971". Archived from the original on 16 March 2016. Retrieved 31 January 2020.