American Colonization Society schooner anchored off Cape Mesurado in 1821 as settlers are rowed ashore

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The opening chapters of Liberia After 1822 are open to every reader — no account required. They set the Grain Coast in place before 1821 and bring the story to the December 15 agreement at Cape Mesurado.

Part I · Chapter 1

West Africa at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century

The political, economic and cultural landscape of the Grain Coast before the permanent American settlement.

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Part I · Chapter 2

From Sherbro Island to Cape Mesurado

The failure of the first settlement effort, disease, deaths, relocation and the search for a permanent colonial site.

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Part I · Chapter 3

December 15, 1821

A detailed examination of the Cape Mesurado agreement, its participants, witnesses, terms, goods exchanged and territorial descriptions.

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Nineteenth-century treaty documents, a wax seal, brass dividers and a folded map of the Grain Coast — Every chapter is built from treaties, agency correspondence and archival maps.

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All 52 chapters, the documentary appendices and the source apparatus are available to subscribers and to readers of the print edition.

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