CONGRESSIONAL LEGAL & HISTORICAL
MEMORANDUM
FROM MASSACHUSETTS TO LIBERIA: THE UNFINISHED AMERICAN
PROMISE
QUESTION PRESENTED
As the United States commemorates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence,
may Congress use its constitutional authority over naturalization to establish a special
citizenship process for persons with qualifying historical connections to Liberia while examining
the documented role of the United States Government in slavery, racial exclusion, colonization,
the settlement of Liberia, and the citizenship status of the people affected by those policies?
SHORT ANSWER
The Constitution expressly grants Congress authority “To establish an uniform Rule of
Naturalization.”
Congress has exercised its citizenship and naturalization authority collectively at different
periods of American history. The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 provides one significant
example of Congress legislating to address the citizenship status of a historically defined class.
Native American history and the history of Liberia are materially different. The 1924 Act
therefore does not itself establish citizenship for persons born in Liberia.
The proposed America 250 Unity, Reciprocity, Reconciliation & Citizenship Act instead
asks Congress to examine a longer American historical record—from slavery and racial
exclusion in colonial Massachusetts through Federal colonization policies and the establishment
of Liberia—and determine what recognition, reconciliation, reciprocity, or citizenship remedy
Congress considers appropriate.
I. 1641 — LIBERTY AND SLAVERY IN
MASSACHUSETTS
Long before the founding of the United States, Massachusetts embodied a contradiction that
would follow America for centuries: the development of constitutional liberty alongside legalized
human bondage.
On December 10, 1641, the Massachusetts General Court established the Body of Liberties,
one of the earliest legal codes of colonial New England.
The document contained protections that anticipated later American concepts of due process
and individual liberty.
Yet Article 91 also permitted “bond slaverie” under specified circumstances.
Thus, a document remembered as an early landmark in the development of American liberty
also provided legal recognition for slavery.
The contradiction between liberty for some and bondage for others was present generations
before the Declaration of Independence.
II. 1670 — TOWARD HEREDITARY
SLAVERY
Massachusetts revised its slavery provision in 1670.
The revision did not expressly say that every unborn child of an enslaved woman was
“property.” That distinction is historically important.
However, the National Park Service explains that Massachusetts removed the word “stranger”
from the earlier provision and that, through this revision and colonial practice, slavery came to
be accepted as a permanent and hereditary institution.
The result was profound:
Human bondage could extend beyond one generation.
Children could inherit the enslaved condition of their parents.
The American struggle over whether liberty was an inherent human right or a privilege limited by
race was therefore already developing in seventeenth-century Massachusetts.
III. 1770 — CRISPUS ATTUCKS AND THE
FIRST BLOODSHED
On March 5, 1770, British soldiers fired into a crowd in Boston in what became known as the
Boston Massacre.
Among those killed was Crispus Attucks, a sailor of mixed African and Indigenous ancestry.
The National Park Service describes Attucks as the first victim of the Boston Massacre. Later
abolitionists celebrated him as the first martyr of the American Revolution.
The symbolism is extraordinary.
Before the United States existed, a man of African and Indigenous ancestry died in Boston in
the struggle that Americans would remember as a struggle for liberty.
Yet people of both African and Indigenous ancestry would continue for generations to struggle
for full recognition of the very freedoms for which Attucks became a symbol.
IV. 1773 — THE SHEFFIELD
DECLARATION
In Sheffield, Massachusetts, local citizens adopted a declaration in January 1773 protesting
British violations of colonial rights.
The Sheffield Declaration proclaimed the principle that mankind in a state of nature is “equal,
free, and independent.”
Among the people living in the household of Sheffield patriot and judge John Ashley was an
enslaved Black woman known as Mum Bett.
The principles being discussed around her would soon become revolutionary.
V. 1776 — “ALL MEN ARE CREATED
EQUAL”
On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence announced an enduring American
proposition:
“All men are created equal.”
The Declaration helped give political birth to a new nation built upon claims of natural rights,
liberty, equality and government by consent.
But the new nation’s reality contradicted its promise.
Slavery remained lawful.
Human beings remained property.
Some of America’s most powerful political leaders were themselves slaveholders.
The contradiction between the Declaration’s universal language and racial slavery became one
of the defining constitutional and moral struggles of American history.
VI. 1780 — MASSACHUSETTS
DECLARES: “ALL MEN ARE BORN FREE
AND EQUAL”
On June 15, 1780, Massachusetts ratified a new constitution.
Article I of its Declaration of Rights announced:
“All men are born free and equal.”
The Massachusetts Constitution remains the world’s oldest functioning written constitution.
Its equality language soon moved from political philosophy into a courtroom.
VII. 1781 — MUM BETT TESTS THE
PROMISE
Mum Bett could not exercise political power through wealth, office, or formal education.
But she could ask whether the words of the new Constitution actually meant what they said.
With Brom, another enslaved person, she challenged her enslavement in Brom & Bett v.
Ashley.
On August 21, 1781, the jury found that Brom and Bett were not legally the property of John
Ashley.
They were awarded their freedom and damages.
The following day, judgment was entered.
The significance extended far beyond two individuals.
An enslaved Black woman had invoked the language of constitutional equality against an
institution that treated human beings as property—and prevailed.
She became known as Elizabeth Freeman.
Her case demonstrates an enduring democratic principle:
A constitutional promise acquires meaning when ordinary people have the courage and
legal means to demand that government honor it.
VIII. 1783 — SLAVERY BECOMES
JUDICIALLY UNENFORCEABLE IN
MASSACHUSETTS
The Bett litigation was followed by the Quock Walker cases.
Massachusetts courts concluded that slavery was incompatible with the Massachusetts
Constitution’s declaration that all persons were born free and equal.
Massachusetts did not abolish slavery through a single legislative statute in 1783.
Rather, judicial decisions rendered slavery legally unenforceable under the new Constitution.
The Commonwealth therefore offers an early American example of constitutional language
being used to confront an established system of racial bondage.
IX. 1787 — THE UNITED STATES
CONSTITUTION AND THE CONTINUING
CONTRADICTION
The United States Constitution was drafted in 1787.
It created an extraordinary new constitutional republic.
But compromises surrounding slavery were embedded in the original constitutional structure.
Among them was the provision commonly called the Three-Fifths Clause, under which
enslaved persons were counted as three-fifths of a person for purposes of congressional
representation and direct taxation.
The Constitution therefore created institutions of republican government while accommodating
slavery.
The contradiction remained unresolved.
X. MARCH 26, 1790 — “FREE WHITE
PERSON”
Congress enacted the Naturalization Act of 1790, and President George Washington signed it
on March 26.
The statute limited eligibility for naturalization to a:
“free white person.”
Fourteen years after the Declaration proclaimed human equality, Federal naturalization law
explicitly used race in determining eligibility for membership in the American political community.
This racial restriction is an important part of the historical setting from which the colonization
movement subsequently emerged.
XI. 1816 — THE AMERICAN
COLONIZATION SOCIETY
The American Colonization Society (ACS) was organized in Washington in December 1816.
Its leadership included prominent white Americans, including political, judicial, religious, and
governmental figures.
The organization promoted the removal and settlement of free Black Americans in Africa.
Supporters of colonization did not all share the same motives. Some described colonization as
humanitarian or antislavery; others viewed free Black Americans as a social or political problem
and supported removal while slavery continued within the United States.
Free Black Americans themselves repeatedly organized against colonization.
The relationship among slavery, emancipation, racial exclusion and colonization therefore
requires careful examination rather than a single explanation of motive.
XII. MARCH 3, 1819 — CONGRESS,
MONEY AND FEDERAL POWER
On March 3, 1819, Congress enacted legislation strengthening enforcement against the
transatlantic slave trade.
The Act appropriated $100,000 and authorized the President to use Federal resources in
connection with Africans taken from intercepted slave ships.
This legislation became an important part of the legal framework through which the Federal
Government became involved in establishing arrangements on the African coast for recaptured
Africans.
Federal agents, Federal appropriations and the United States Navy consequently became part
of the history that produced the settlements associated with Liberia.
XIII. BLACK AMERICAN RESISTANCE TO
COLONIZATION
Colonization did not proceed with unanimous support among African Americans.
Free Black communities held meetings and adopted resolutions opposing removal from the
United States.
For many Black Americans, America was their country. Their demand was not transportation
elsewhere but recognition of their rights where they were born.
Opposition and disagreement also developed within the African settlements.
These voices belong in any congressional investigation of colonization because the history
cannot be understood solely through the records of white ACS officers or Federal officials.
XIV. DECEMBER 15, 1821 — CAPE
MESURADO
In December 1821, ACS representative Eli Ayres and United States Navy officer Robert F.
Stockton participated in negotiations through which territory at Cape Mesurado was obtained.
The Library of Congress documents Stockton’s participation in the transaction.
This is one of several examples demonstrating that the establishment of Liberia cannot
accurately be understood solely as the activity of an ordinary private charitable corporation.
Federal personnel and Federal power were intertwined with important parts of the process.
XV. APRIL 25, 1822 — PERMANENT
SETTLEMENT
On April 25, 1822, settlers arrived at Cape Mesurado and began establishing the permanent
settlement that developed into Monrovia.
United States naval involvement, Federal funding and Federal activity involving Africans
rescued from slave ships formed part of the broader settlement history.
The American flag and U.S. naval presence became important symbols of the settlement’s
American connection.
XVI. 1824 — RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES OF
UNITED STATES CITIZENS
The Constitution for the Government of the African Colony at Liberia contained extraordinary
language.
Article I declared that persons born within territory held by the American Colonization Society in
Liberia, or moving there to reside, would be free and entitled to rights and privileges enjoyed by
citizens of the United States.
Another provision preserved the “jurisdiction, rights and claims of the United States”
concerning certain Africans and others under Federal care or control.
These provisions do not, standing alone, conclusively establish that every Liberia-born person
became a citizen of the United States.
They do, however, raise substantial historical and legal questions about what status American
officials and colonization authorities contemplated for people inhabiting a settlement created
through this unusual public-private arrangement.
Those questions deserve congressional examination.
XVII. 1831 AND 1837 — FORMAL
INCORPORATION
The American Colonization Society existed and operated for years before receiving the
Maryland corporate charters commonly associated with its formal incorporation.
Maryland enacted incorporation legislation in 1831 and again in 1837.
That chronology raises an important historical question about the legal status and authority
under which the ACS acted during the earlier period when settlements were established and
governmental functions were exercised in Liberia.
Congress should examine the original charters, Federal legislation, ACS documents, state laws
and subsequent congressional investigations before drawing legal conclusions from that history.
XVIII. 1844 — CONGRESS INVESTIGATES
By the 1840s, Congress was examining important questions concerning the legal status, powers
and activities of the American Colonization Society.
The congressional record concerning the May 4, 1844 House Foreign Affairs Committee
report should be incorporated into the America 250 historical review, including the report’s
treatment of the validity and reach of state incorporation and ACS authority.
Because the precise legal implications of the report are important to the proposed legislation,
the original congressional report should be reproduced as a primary-source exhibit rather than
summarized more broadly than its language supports.
XIX. 1847 — INDEPENDENCE AND A
NARROW POLITICAL COMMUNITY
Liberia declared independence on July 26, 1847.
The political process leading to independence was conducted primarily through the
settler-controlled Commonwealth institutions rather than through a modern nationwide vote
encompassing the indigenous population inhabiting the territory that later constituted Liberia.
American constitutional ideas strongly influenced the new republic.
Harvard Law professor Simon Greenleaf provided constitutional material and advice through
contacts associated with the Massachusetts Colonization Society. Historical scholarship,
however, cautions against the simplified claim that Greenleaf personally “wrote” Liberia’s entire
Constitution; Liberian convention delegates participated in producing the final document.
A later constitutional referendum held on September 27, 1847 recorded 214 votes for the
Constitution and 58 against—272 votes in total.
That limited electorate is important historical context, but the 214 votes should not be described
as the July 26 vote declaring independence.
The distinction matters.
XX. FEDERAL AND STATE SUPPORT FOR
COLONIZATION
The colonization movement received support from more than private donors.
The Federal Government appropriated funds and employed governmental resources associated
with the suppression of the slave trade and settlement of recaptured Africans.
Various states also supported colonization projects or auxiliary societies.
Several settlements on the Liberian coast reflected connections with particular American states
and colonization organizations.
The result was a remarkable transatlantic political landscape in which American names,
institutions, constitutional ideas, churches and governmental practices became embedded in
Liberia.
XXI. 1862 — THE UNITED STATES
RECOGNIZES LIBERIA
Although Liberia declared independence in 1847, the United States did not formally recognize
the Republic until September 23, 1862, during the Civil War.
The delay reflected, among other considerations, America’s domestic politics surrounding
slavery and race.
Formal diplomatic relations followed.
XXII. 1909 — “LIBERIA IS AN AMERICAN
COLONY”
More than six decades after Liberian independence, a State Department communication of
January 18, 1909 stated:
“Liberia is an American colony.”
The document recounted extensive American governmental and private involvement in Liberia’s
establishment.
The statement does not mean that Liberia was legally United States territory in 1909.
It does demonstrate the extraordinary way in which American officials themselves historically
characterized the relationship.
XXIII. WORLD WAR II — STRATEGIC
PARTNERS
During World War II, Liberia became strategically important to the United States.
American military personnel and facilities were established there, and Liberia’s geographic
position and rubber resources were important to the Allied war effort.
The relationship continued through the Cold War, when Liberia remained a close American
partner in West Africa.
Thus the American-Liberian relationship did not end with nineteenth-century colonization.
It continued through diplomacy, defense, commerce and international security.
XXIV. 1924 — CONGRESS ACTS ON
CITIZENSHIP
On June 2, 1924, Congress enacted the Indian Citizenship Act.
The statute declared noncitizen American Indians born within the territorial limits of the United
States to be citizens while protecting tribal and property rights.
Native American history and Liberia’s history are different.
But the institutional precedent remains relevant:
Congress has previously used legislation to address the citizenship status of a
historically defined population.
The question for Congress in 2026 is whether the distinct documentary history connecting the
United States and Liberia warrants another exercise of congressional naturalization authority.
XXV. THE MODERN VISA
CONTRADICTION
The historical relationship now exists alongside a markedly restrictive modern travel reality.
According to the United States Department of State, Liberia’s FY2024 adjusted B-visa refusal
rate was 79.38 percent.
That means nearly four out of five applications counted under the Department’s adjusted B-visa
methodology resulted in refusal.
The comparison should be made carefully because visa refusal statistics depend upon
nationality, visa category, applications and methodology.
Nevertheless, the official figure establishes that Liberian nationals faced an exceptionally high
B-visa refusal rate in FY2024.
This contemporary fact does not itself establish a legal entitlement to citizenship or visa-free
travel.
It does, however, add a modern dimension to the question of reciprocity between two countries
with an unusually deep historical relationship.
XXVI. 2026 — AMERICA AT 250
America’s 250th anniversary provides an opportunity to place this entire history into one national
conversation:
1641: Massachusetts recognizes both liberty and slavery.
1670: Massachusetts slavery develops toward a hereditary institution.
1770: Crispus Attucks, of African and Indigenous ancestry, dies in the Boston Massacre.
1773: Sheffield declares mankind naturally equal and free.
1776: America proclaims that “all men are created equal.”
1780: Massachusetts declares that “all men are born free and equal.”
1781: Mum Bett tests that promise and wins freedom and damages.
1783: Massachusetts courts render slavery incompatible with the state constitution.
1787: The Federal Constitution creates republican government while accommodating slavery,
including the Three-Fifths Clause.
1790: Federal naturalization is restricted to a “free white person.”
1816: The American Colonization Society is organized.
1819: Congress appropriates $100,000 in legislation connected with suppression of the slave
trade and recaptured Africans.
1821: U.S. Navy officer Robert F. Stockton participates in the Cape Mesurado land transaction.
1822: Permanent settlement begins at Cape Mesurado.
1824: Liberia’s colonial constitution promises inhabitants rights and privileges enjoyed by
citizens of the United States.
1831/1837: Maryland incorporates the ACS.
1844: Congress investigates questions involving the Society’s legal authority.
1847: Liberia declares independence; its Constitution emerges from a settler-controlled political
system heavily influenced by American constitutional models.
1862: The United States recognizes Liberia.
1909: A State Department document calls Liberia “an American colony.”
1924: Congress enacts the Indian Citizenship Act.
World War II and the Cold War: Liberia serves as a significant American strategic partner.
2024: Liberia’s adjusted B-visa refusal rate reaches 79.38 percent.
2026: America reaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
THE QUESTION FOR CONGRESS
This history does not answer every legal question.
It makes those questions difficult to ignore.
What was the legal relationship among the United States Government, the American
Colonization Society and Liberia before independence?
What status did the United States understand Black Americans transported or emigrating to
Liberia to possess?
What status applied to Africans rescued by American naval forces and placed there under
Federal authority?
What was the intended legal significance of the 1824 guarantee of rights and privileges enjoyed
by citizens of the United States?
What authority did the ACS possess when exercising governmental functions?
What role did Federal and state governments play?
Whose consent was obtained—and whose was absent—when political institutions and territorial
claims were established?
And after 250 years of American history, what remedy, if any, should Congress adopt?
CONSTITUTIONAL PATH FORWARD
The proposed America 250 Unity, Reciprocity, Reconciliation & Citizenship Act would not
require Congress to pretend that every disputed historical question has already been resolved.
It would place the evidence before Congress.
It would open Federal records.
It would establish an independent historical inquiry.
It would hear from descendants of American settlers, recaptured Africans, indigenous Liberian
communities, historians, constitutional scholars, the Governments of Liberia and the United
States, and other affected communities.
And Congress could then determine the appropriate exercise of its constitutional naturalization
authority.
Possible approaches include:
- special naturalization for a historically defined class;
- voluntary collective naturalization;
- expedited election of citizenship;
- recognition or restoration for categories established by historical evidence; or
- a commission-first process followed by final congressional action.
FROM MUM BETT TO AMERICA 250
The historical thread connecting Massachusetts, America and Liberia is ultimately a question
about whether constitutional promises have practical meaning.
Mum Bett could neither read nor write.
She held no public office.
She possessed no political power.
Yet when Massachusetts proclaimed that human beings were born free and equal, she asked
the legal system to apply those words to her.
She won her freedom and damages.
That history does not determine what Congress should enact concerning Liberia in 2026.
But it provides a powerful question for Americans to consider:
When a nation writes equality and liberty into its founding promises, what responsibility
does each generation have to examine whether its laws and institutions have honored
those promises?
That is the question the America 250 Unity, Reciprocity, Reconciliation & Citizenship Act
places before Congress and the American people