Among people already living in the area, opinions were sharply divided regarding the slave trade.
This division was not between ethnic groups, with some being for and others against. Instead, each ethnic group contained some members who were proslavery while others were abolitionist. That was the case in societies all along the rim of the Atlantic.
Given the slave trade’s polarizing impact, local people did not respond in a unified and homogeneous way to African-Americans who came seeking land.
On the one hand, foreign slave buyers and their local allies vehemently and violently opposed the repatriates, whom they viewed as threats to their profits.
On the other hand, local abolitionists welcomed African-American returnees as allies whose global ties and external knowledge could help bring a speedy end to the trade in enslaved Africans that had ravaged local societies for centuries.
Beginning in the late 1830s, a key link between Bopolu and the Liberian colony was Gabriel Moore, who became one of the country’s richest merchants. Gabriel arrived as age 20 and identified as a farmer when he emigrated from Mississippi with his father and siblings in April 1835.
Upon arriving in Liberia, Gabriel “went native,” spending many years living in Bopolu. While there, according to a writer familiar with the details of Moore’s life, he “formed an intimate acquaintance with the native manners and customs.
Footnote: Gilbert Haven, “Up the St. John’s,” Christian Advocate, April 12, 1877, p. 225; Tom W. Shick,Roll of the Emigrants to the Colony of Liberia Sent by the American Colonization Society from 1820-1843 [computer file]. Madison, WI: Tom W. Shick [producer], 1973; “Death of Gabriel Moore, Esq.,” African Repository, Jan. 1886, p. 43.
A “natural linguist,” Moore reportedly spoke “with ease and fluency” all of the African languages spoken on Liberian territory, including Via, Mandingo, Goal, Kpelle, Dei, Bassa, Kru and even that of liberated Africans from the Congo. He served for many years as interpreter for the national government.
Moore harnessed his language facility and residence in Bopolu to become one of Liberia’s wealthiest traders.
Footnote: Gilbert Haven, “Up the St. John’s,” Christian Advocate, April 12, 1877, p. 225; Tom W. Shick,Roll of the Emigrants to the Colony of Liberia Sent by the American Colonization Society from 1820-1843 [computer file]. Madison, WI: Tom W. Shick [producer], 1973; “Death of Gabriel Moore, Esq.,” African Repository, Jan. 1886, p. 43.