The Declaration of Independence
The Liberian Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 26, 1847, at Providence Baptist Church in Monrovia (Montserrado County), where eleven elected delegates from Liberia’s three counties — Montserrado, Grand Bassa, and Sinoe — had been convening since July 5. The document was written by Hilary Teague, a Virginia-born journalist, merchant, and one of the most gifted writers among the settler community.
Structure and Model
The Declaration’s structure was consciously modeled on the 1776 United States Declaration of Independence. Like its American predecessor, it opened by asserting universal natural rights — affirming that all men possess inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the right to acquire, possess, enjoy, and defend property. Where the U.S. Declaration charged King George III with injustices against the colonists, the Liberian Declaration listed the injustices committed against African Americans: exclusion from civic life, taxation without representation, legal discrimination, and denial of the basic rights of citizenship.
A Declaration Without Revolution
The Liberian Declaration does not assert a right of revolution. It frames independence not as a break from oppression by a tyrannical government, but as the planned and agreed outcome of the colony’s relationship with the American Colonization Society — the private organization that had sponsored and administered the settlement since 1816. By January 1846, the ACS had formally surrendered all governance of the colony, fully encouraging the move to independence.
International Submission
The document called upon the international community to recognize Liberian sovereignty. The full text of the Declaration is held at the Library of Congress — Liberia Collection and remains a foundational document of Liberian national identity.
Sources:
Wikipedia — Liberian Declaration of Independence [3];
Gilder Lehrman Institute [8];
Library of Congress — Liberia Collection