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Liberian Treasury Department, American Colonization Society, 1861 I/U Second Exchange

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Paper Money - World Currency Start Price:500.00 USD Estimated At:600.00 - 1,200.00 USD
Liberian Treasury Department, American Colonization Society, 1861 I/U Second Exchange
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Liberia and Washington, D.C., 1861. $350 I/U Second Exchange document from the Treasury Department of Monrovia (Liberia), S/N 75, issued to William McLain, Financial Secretary of the American Colonization Society, Black text with thin border on blue paper, VF condition. Signed by Stephen A. Benson as President of the Republic of Liberia at left, as well as John B. Jordan as Secretary of the Treasury at bottom right, and mentions Asbury F. Johns in the text. This piece was issued the year before the United States recognized Liberia as a country. Stephen Allen Benson (1816-1865) served as the 2nd President of Liberia from 1856 to 1864. Prior to that, he was the 3rd Vice President of Liberia from 1854 to 1856 under President Joseph Jenkins Roberts. Although born in the United States, Benson was the first president to have lived in Liberia since childhood, he and his family having arrived with the first groups of settlers in 1822. John Bradberry Jordan (1817-1852) was born as a slave in New Orleans in 1817. Jordan's freedom was granted upon his master's death, and he emigrated to Liberia in 1852. Jordan established a sugarcane farm, purchasing a steam mill in 1857 and becoming a prosperous farmer. He served as Liberia's Secretary of the Treasury in President Benson's administration, until his death in 1862. Asbury F. Johns was born in Maryland around 1820, and he immigrated to Liberia in 1852. He became one of the wealthiest merchants in Liberia and became involved in politics, serving as Liberia's Treasurer under several presidents. Liberia began in the early 19th century as a project of the American Colonization Society (ACS), which believed black people would face better chances for freedom and prosperity in Africa than in the United States. The African-American community and abolitionist movement overwhelmingly opposed the project. In most cases, African Americans' families had lived in the United States for generations, and their prevailing sentiment was that they were no more African than white Americans were European. Contrary to stated claims that emigration was voluntary, many African Americans, both free and enslaved, were pressured into emigrating. Indeed, enslavers sometimes manumitted their slaves on condition that the freedmen leave the country immediately. Rare piece of history from a controversial movement in America.