Liberia Emigration and Immigration

Online Sources

 * 1878-1960 UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960 at Ancestry - index & images ($)
 * 1890-1960 Passenger Lists Leaving UK 1890-1960 at Findmypast - index & images ($)
 * 1892-1924 New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924 Search results for Liberia

British Overseas Subjects

 * British Armed Forces and Overseas Births and Baptisms, Liberia, index & images ($)
 * British Armed Forces and Overseas Banns and Marriages, Liberia, index & images ($)
 * British Armed Forces and Overseas Deaths and Burials, Liberia, index & images ($)

Liberia Emigration and Immigration
"Emigration" means moving out of a country. "Immigration" means moving into a country. Emigration and immigration sources list the names of people leaving (emigrating) or arriving (immigrating) in the country. These sources may be passenger lists, permissions to emigrate, or records of passports issued. The information in these records may include the emigrants’ names, ages, occupations, destinations, and places of origin or birthplaces. Sometimes they also show family groups.

Immigration into Liberia

 * Between 1461 and the late 17th century, Portuguese, Dutch, and British traders had contacts and trading posts in the region. The Portuguese named the area Costa da Pimenta ("Pepper Coast") but it later came to be known as the Grain Coast, due to the abundance of melegueta pepper grains. European traders would barter commodities and goods with local people.
 * Liberia began in the early 19th century as a settlement of the American Colonization Society (ACS), which believed black people would face better chances for freedom and prosperity in Africa than in the United States.
 * Between 1822 and the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, more than 15,000 freed and free-born people of color who faced social and legal oppression in the U.S., along with 3,198 Afro-Caribbeans, relocated to Liberia.
 * In 1822, the American Colonization Society began sending free people of color to the Pepper Coast voluntarily to establish a colony.
 * Mortality from tropical diseases was high — of the 4,571 emigrants who arrived in Liberia between 1820 and 1843, only 1,819 survived.
 * By 1867, the ACS (and state-related chapters) had assisted in the migration of more than 13,000 people of color from the United States and the Caribbean to Liberia. These free African Americans and their descendants married within their community and came to identify as Americo-Liberians.
 * Similar state-based organizations established colonies in Mississippi-in-Africa, Kentucky in Africa, and the Republic of Maryland, which Liberia later annexed.
 * An insurrection in December 1989 triggered the First Liberian Civil War. From 1989 to 1997 around 60,000 to 80,000 Liberians died, and by 1996 around 700,000 others had been displaced into refugee camps in neighboring countries.
 * The Kpelle comprise more than 20% of the population and are the largest ethnic group in Liberia, residing mostly in Bong County and adjacent areas in central Liberia.
 * Americo-Liberians, who are descendants of African American and West Indian, mostly Barbadian (Bajan) settlers, make up 2.5%.
 * Congo people, descendants of repatriated Congo and Afro-Caribbean slaves who arrived in 1825, make up an estimated 2.5%.
 * Numerous immigrants have come as merchants and become a major part of the business community, including Lebanese, Indians, and other West African nationals.
 * A small minority of Liberians who are White Africans of European descent reside in the country.

Emigration From Liberia
KNOMAD Statistics: Emigrants:370,500. Top destination countries: Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, the United States, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Australia, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands