In 1822, the American Colonization Society—a group of politicians, religious leaders, and slaveholders—established Liberia as an African homeland for freed American slaves. The slaveholders were worried about the "corrupting influence" that free African-Americans might have on...

...American slaves, and they saw the creation of an African colony as a solution. In 1847, after resettling fewer than 20,000 African-Americans in Liberia (Americo-Liberian), the ACS ceded control of the territory and the Republic of Liberia declared its independence.

Americo-Liberian identity overwhelmingly relied on
White American middle class cultural values despite the founders’ criticisms and rejection of
racial oppression and slavery.

They participated in a culture that
downgraded African heritage fostered the internalization of Western notions of civilization and
African inferiority that led them to establish an oppressive regime similar to the one they had
escaped.

The formerly oppressed and enslaved blacks became oppressors and enslavers of other black people in the name of a “civilizing mission.” Americo-Liberians collectively engaged in contradictory social behavior that is categorically double consciousness.

The blackness is portrayed as inferior & excessively violent by the dominant white society. Moreover, the racist societies inflict mental trauma on the oppressed non-white masses. The mental trauma is embodied in the formation of a divided self-perception within black bodies.

This divided self-perception is double consciousness. It is a battle for identity that occurs on an individual and collective level. Black bodies are constantly negotiating their identities: adopting and shedding identities throughout their entire lifetimes.

They are incessantly attempting to “merge their double self into a better and truer self.” Those with dual identity, such as the free blacks who settled in Liberia, often deal with mental conflicts rooted in past experiences of rejection and oppression.

Often this struggle to form one’s true identity by negotiating various conflicting identities, leads to a rebellious tendency or contradictory behavior.

Paradoxically, Americo-Liberians attempted to construct an identity and escape their otherness by supporting the very rules that defined them into the existence of other. They judged their ethnicity, through the revelation of the dominant culture, white American supremacy.

During their time as black American enslaved bodies, Americo-Liberians were subject to a “sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's worth by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity."

Their experience with white supremacist ideology engendered an inferiority complex. This inferiority complex reflects a form of internalized oppression. Internalized oppression involves a victim’s subjection to the very racist ideologies that define them and imprison them.

They became influenced by the negative image that White supremacist ideology promotes regarding their own Black race and otherness Manifestations of internalized oppression among Americo-Liberians included feelings of self-doubt, disgust and disrespect for indigenous Liberians.

The Americo-Liberian experience epitomizes the dangerous effects of internalized oppression on behavior. They became psychologically detached from their African heritage and adopted the culture of the dominant society in attempt to gain acceptance.

The oppressed develop maladaptive responses in an attempt to maintain mental sanity. These maladaptive responses take the form of efforts to change their reality and take on the “civilized” characteristics of their oppressors.

While trying to resist racist stereotypes about otherness the oppressed simultaneously assimilate White supremacy and the glorification of whiteness (western civilization).

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