When ACS agent Elliott Skinner first visited the island in early 1835, he saw the ruins of “an ancient wharf,” which evoked images of the previously thriving local slave trade.
“I fancied before me a store of goods, filled with rum and other things to excite war and purchase human flesh; the barricade, the clinking chain by which human beings are fastened to each other by the neck, were present before me. I heard or fancied I heard the groan of the husband torn forever from his wife and family, and that of the despairing wife and mother was a reality to my imagination; every degree of family connexion torn asunder by the monster slave trade, I fancied before me the blood-stained soil of Africa and the blazing native village.
Footnote: E. Skinner, “Liberia: Extracts of a letter,” African Repository, June 1836, p. 169.
Categories