The_Open_Door_deel1

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embarrassment towards a (growing) minority of freed slaves and
of "persons of colour" (the offspring of inter-racial relations)
were combined with liberal, humanitarian and religious ideals
(13). In 1819 the U.S. Government appropriated $100,000 to aid
African colonisation (14).
The American Colonization Society, created in 1816 as a voluntary
philantropic society, in 1820 sent a first group of negroes and
mulattoes - under white leadership - to the West Coast of Africa*
with the financial, logistic and military support of the U.S.
Government (15). The immigrants landed on Sherbro Island, but
were exposed to a tropical climate and to diseases they had never
come into contact with and within a very short period their number
was significantly reduced. The survivors fled to Sierra Leone.
This area was a British colony since 1808, and the U.K. Government
tried to establish a similar settlement here (16).
A second group of colonists, also financed and equipped by the
American Colonization Society and the American Government, sailed
from the U.S.A. in 1821. The (white) Agent of the American Colonization
Society, Dr. Ayres, and an accompanying U.S. Navy officer,
Captain Stockton, left the group in Sierra Leone and sailed further
along the coast. They landed at Cape Mesurado in December of
the same year. There the two men negotiated the sale of Dozea Island,
an island in the Mesurado river, Cape Mesurado, the mouth
of the Mesurado river and an adjoining strip of land. They finally
came to an agreement with the tribal chiefs. The Deed was signed
by the Kings Peter, George, Zoda (also written as Yoda), Long
Peter, Governor and Jimmy (none of them could either read or write),
Dr. Ayres and Captain Stockton.
According to the Deed the land was bartered against
"Six fluskets, one box Beads, two hogsheads Tobacco, one cask
Qunpowder, six bars Iron, ten Iron Pots, one dozen Knives and
Torkes, one dozen Spoons, six pieces blue Baft, four Hats,
three Coats, three pair Shoes, one box Pipes, one keg Nails,
twenty Lookingglasses, three pieces Handkerchief, three
pieces Calico, three. Canes, four Umbrellas, one box Soap,
one barrel Rum; and later was to be paid the. following '•
three casks 7obacco, one box Pipes, three barrels Rum, twelve
pieces Cloth, six Lars Iron, one Lox Beads, fifty Knives,
twenty Lookingglasses, ten Iron Pots different sizes, twelve
Quns, three Larrels Qunpowder, one dozen Plates, one dozen
Knives and Torkes, twenty Hats, five casks Beef, five barrels
Pork, ten Larrels Biscuit, twelve Decanters, twelve glass
Tumblers, and fifty Shoes" (17).
This was never paid in full, however, and part of what was paid on
this day, 15th December, 1821, was later even taken back (18). On
December 16, 1821 Dr. Ayres in a report to his Society wrote enthusiastically
that "(...) Ue have purchased a tract, of country containing
one million dollars' worth of land (...)" for which he had
paid goods which value was "(,..) not amounting to more than three
hundred dollars (...)" (19).
After successfully completing their mission Ayres and Stockton