Paper short abstract:

My paper focuses on how Liberian historiography has employed the binary formulation of white vs. black as naturally given. Instead, I explore the categories of difference developed in Liberia which challenge the constructions of racial thought that have limited Liberian historiography.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will examine how the binary formulation of white vs. black has been employed uncritically in Liberian historiography. In it I will argue that historians of Liberia have attempted to employ these racial categories as though biologically-defined, ignoring their social construction and instead presenting them as natural givens. Particularly, I argue, historians have tried to elide the origins of this white vs. black dichotomy in another problematic dichotomy, civilized vs. uncivilized, and that this racial binary cannot be invoked without simultaneously invoking the other. I then draw on Jonathon Glassman's work in War of Words, War of Stones where he argues "The distinction between 'race' and 'ethnicity,' then, is one of degree, not kind, and rather than regard them as qualitatively distinct, it is more useful to recognize them as modes of thought that fall toward opposing ends of a single continuum." I build upon this by exploring the unique categories of difference which the Liberian community developed to structure their society, categories of difference which challenged the constructions of racial thought they had inherited from their American socialization and which cannot be seen as either racially or ethnically defined. I thus argue that an analysis of these new categories of difference is uniquely positioned to expose the fallacy that race and ethnicity are conceptually distinct while opening new avenues for a more productive conversation about Liberian society in the nineteenth century which more openly addresses questions of race and civilization.