Author: Patrick

Travel expenses for legislators were approved at the following rate in 1938: Montserrado County and Marshall Territory $10; Maryland, $72; Sinoe, 49.68; Grand Bassa, $43.92; and Grand Cape Mount, $43.92. One year later, resident A. R. Chinoweth, Sr., was granted an annuity of $120 for his service as commissary for 15 years and military duty from 1890 to 1910, including the Gbesseh expedition, under R. A. Sherman, and the Gleemah battle.

The Wakolo Ferry Transport Company, Incorporated, was granted a ferry franchise in 1938 for ten years with a maximum charge of 48 cents between Robertsport and Deah, 24 cents between Robertsport and Sawilor and 12 cents between Robertsport and Mecca Point and between Towele and Sulima.  Named as officers were N. B. Baxton, I. L. Hoff, E. O. K. Freeman, Mambu Kia Howo, A. H. Butler and J. J. Greene, to operate along the Maffar River, from Sawilor to Deah, and along Lake Piso, from Robertsport, Mecca Point, Sulima and Towele. In the same bill, the legislature repealed ferry franchises previously awarded to J. C. Johns Company and I. L. Hoff and Company.

Footnote: Acts of the Liberian Legislature, 1938, pp. 1-2; Acts of the Liberian Legislature, 1938, p. 65; Acts of the Liberian Legislature, 1938, pp. 72-73.

Boima Kartumu and Sons of Kolobolia, Dewo, were granted sole right in 1938 to operate a ferry franchise for 20 years across the Marfa River from Kolobolia to the opposite side. Also in 1838, resident Daniel Jackson of Tallah was restored to citizenship, suggesting that he was previously convicted of a serious crime.

In 1938, the legislature granted to Zuke Kandakai, Njola Karmoh, Sengbe Kojowah and Siafa Jalla-Kei, the right to run a ferry across the Little Cape Mount at the points commonly known as Gbaa, to and from the opposite bank and Segana, to and from the opposite bank for a maximum charge of 12 cents.

Footnote: Acts of the Liberian Legislature, 1938, pp. 58-59; Acts of the Liberian Legislature, 1938, p. 64; Acts of the Liberian Legislature,  1938, pp. 13-14.

Resident Albert Dondo Ware was restored to all right and privileges of citizenship, having been an “upright” citizen since his release from prison.

In 1938, the legislature stipulated the rates that could be charged by the Wakolo Ferry Transport Company Incorporated, county of Grand Cape Mount, keeping the maximum charge at 24 cents between Robertsport and Sawilor and 12 cents between Robertsport and Mecca Point and between Twelve Point and Sulima but reducing the maximum charge between Robertsport and Deah from 48 cents to 24 cents.

Footnote: Acts of the Liberian Legislature, 1938, p. 15; Acts of the Liberian Legislature, 1938, pp. 15-16.

British buyers usually bought most of their slaves along the Sierra Leone coast, then filled up their vessels with slaves from the Windward Coast, mainly from Bassa, followed by Cape Mount.

Most Windward slaves went to the Caribbean, 146,096; Brazil received 2,795; other regions of Africa, 2,595; and the Spanish American mainland, 120. Within the Caribbean, the biggest recipients of Windward captives were Jamaica, 34,162; Barbados, 15,180; Grenada, 14,545; Antigua, 12,175; and Dominica, 10,963.

In 1614-1616 or 1620, rice was one of the few goods available for sale at Cape Mount.

Footnote: Vos, 2010, p. 33; Vos, 2012, pp. 1-2; http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/index.face; Brun, 1983, pp. 74-75, n. 185.

By 1700, traders documented an emerging trade in ivory and trickles of gold. Both of those commodities would be overtaken fifty years later by the traffic in Africans. As European interest in slaves grew, they stopped buying African products, like cotton cloth, for sale to Europe and other regions.

Cape Mount was one of 13 slave-exporting ports in Liberia. Others were  Bassa, Cess, Grand Bassa, Little Bassa, Grand Junk, Little Junk, Grand Mesurado, Petit Mesurado, Grand Sestos, Rock Sestos, St. Paul and Trade Town.

Within Liberia, Cape Mount supplied the largest number of enslaved persons, 42,521.

Footnote: Vos, 2010, p. 32; Vos, 2012, p. 3; Ehret, 2013, p. 469; http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/index.faces.

A major record of what is now the Liberian coast was produced by William Smith, a surveyor sent in 1726 by the Royal African Company of England.

On Dec. 29, 1729, Smith’s ship anchored off Cape Mount and remained for four days, but he apparently did not venture onshore. From his vantage point aboard, he reached two conclusions about local people. First, they seemed “very industrious” because “they all go clad with their own manufactures.”

Second, those who came aboard to trade “were mighty timorous,” especially if any weapons were visible, “for fear of being panyar’d” or kidnapped.

Footnote: Smith, 1744, p. 104.

As for the relationship between the sexes, Bosman noted, each man was allowed as many wives as he could maintain, which wasn’t very difficult since women maintained themselves through their own hard work! “They seem also to live very contentedly with their Wives.”

The husbands, he added condescendingly, were not “much concerned if they venture on unlawful Pleasures with other Men.”

This alleged willingness to overlook adultery might have selectively applied to European visitors, but Bosman wasn’t in a position to know that.

Footnote: Bosman, 1967, p. 474.

Asked about the local religion, residents allegedly told Bosman that “it principally consisted in Reverencing and obeying” their government and “without troubling themselves with what was above” it.

Rather than accurately reflecting local beliefs, this account depicts the difficulty of translating abstract concepts from one language (Dutch) to another (Vai) through a third (Portuguese), which neither of the communicating parties probably spoke very well.

Had the question been put by residents of Cape Mount to the common seamen aboard Bosman’s ship, the response would probably not have corresponded with the views of Dutch clergy.

As the Dutch tightened their control of world trade, their presence increased in the area now known as Liberia. In the early 1700s, a detailed account of West African life was published by William Bosman, a Dutch merchant. From the age of 16, he spent 14 years in West Africa.

He noted the presence here of pineapples, bananas and “Paquovers” (very likely papayas or guavas. All other foodstuff were in short supply, including “great Milhio” (meaning corn or millet), yams and potatoes.

Footnote: Bosman, 1967, pp. 473-474; John Ralph Willis, “Introduction, in William Bosman, A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1967), pp. xvii; vii, xviii, viii-ix; William Bosman, A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea (New York: Barnes & Nobles, 1967),, p. 471; Jones, 1990, pp. 171-209.

Villault “could perceive” that many of the men were circumcised. Many husbands spent hours “with their heads in their Wives lapps” having their hair combed and platted.

Although Villault tried to learn as much as possible about the local religion, a local person reportedly told him that “the Whites pray’d to God, and the Blacks to the Devil.”

Social status apparently defined, not only differences in dress, but also in housing. In contrast to the nondescript huts of salt-makers, the “houses of their Nobility” contained “a distinct appartment where their beds are made either upon plancks, or mat; about a yeard from the ground, about which they hang a cloth.”

Footnote: Villault, 1670, pp. 62-65.

Regarding foodstuff at Cape Mount, Villaut noted citrons, oranges, berries, melons, gourds and “a sort of plums, not much unlike our Brugnons,” but not as tasty. He noted the presence of rice and millet and said maize was “more plentifull, and grows in greater quantity, than in any other part of Guinee whatsoever.”

A wide variety of fowl was available and cheap, including hens, pidgeons, ducks and mallards. In addition to tortoises that yielded “excellent meat” but worthless shells, there was a “great store” of both saltwater and freshwater fish. He also noted a good supply of goats, hogs and apes, “but ugly ones.”

Villault was struck by how careful the local people were in roasting meat over wooden spits, “turning them with great care, and observing very curiously least one side be more roasted then the other. He also pronounced them “very neat in their feeding.”

Footnote: Villault, 1670, pp. 61-62.