House Resolution 1242 commemorates the 400th anniversary  of the arrival  of 20 African indenture servants in the United States of America in 1619.  The American Colonization Society (ACS) was formed in 1817 to send free African-Americans to Africa as an alternative to emancipation in the United States. In 1822, the society established on the west coast of Africa a colony that in 1847 became the independent nation, Republic of Liberia, the executive, legislative and judiciary modeled after the US government.

Statement of Fact

ACS: Paul Cuffee, a successful Quaker ship owner of African-American and Native American ancestry, in 1816, at his own expense, took 38 blacks to Sierra Leone identifying nearby land sites thereby laying the groundwork for later organisation such as the American Colonization Society.  (See Business record and the list of names of 13,000 issued Life Membership Certificate in the American Colonization Society sold to free people of color and passenger list of the emigrants.

Land:  from 1821 to 1840  free black people purchased Cape Montserado, tribal lands along the coast and major rivers leading inland from African kings by treaty and barter. (See maps, settlement patterns, land ownership titles and community development of towns. 

Sovereignty:  In July 1847, free black people proclaimed their independence and created a Constitution for the Republic of Liberia.  

The preamble to the constitution of the new government reads in part. “This land we have acquired by honorable purchase, we bequeath it to our brothers and sisters in bondage in America. In the event they become free, this Republic is their sovereign nation”  (See the original Declaration of  Independence and Constitution of 1847). 

From 1847 to after the Civil War of 1861 to 1865, Liberia sent ships to United States to transport the newly freedmen who had gathered at ports by the thousands with ACS membership certificates in hand.  Neither the crews, emigrants nor ships could return to Liberia.  The transport of emigrants came to an abrupt halt causing the population of Liberian settlers’ class to dwindle relative to the indigenous population who began encroaching on their acquired land. (See the list of emigrants to Liberia after 1866.

During the scramble for Africa in the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, Black leadership and community supported Liberia as their “promised land”.  The whole of Africa including parts of Ethiopia and the 16 indigenous tribes from whom African Americans purchased land were enslaved on their own tribal lands but the Republic of Liberia was never colonized!  (See record of Berlin Conference impact on Liberia.

Jurisdiction – Supreme Court original Jurisdiction

As originally defined in Article III, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, and now codified in federal law at 28 U.S.C. Section 1251, Section 1251 (a).  The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction over four categories of cases, specific to the case at bar is the following category which reads, “all actions or proceedings by a state  (all states of the United States) against the citizens of another state (American-Liberians). 

Parties

We descendants of  enslaved people in the United States of America file claim through class action represented by New African Development Trust (NADT),  Economic National Underprivileged Foundation (ENUF), Black Wall Street USA,  Constituency for Africa.  

Memorandum of Points and Authorities

Dred Scott Case

Amistad Case

13th Amendment

Maritime Law

Of the 20 Africans born in Africa, kidnapped and forcibly brought to the United States of America in 1619, John Punch, thought to have been an indentured servant  in the Colony of Virginia, attempted to escape to Maryland along with several other whites.  Once their plan discovered, an additional year was added to the terms of the whites indentured servants but Punch was sentenced in July 1640 by the Virginia Governor’s Council to serve as a slave for the remainder of his life and his descendants were born into slavery for generation to generation. 

13th Amendment – All people in previous state of servitude shall be  free except those duly convicted in these state jurisdictions, they shall remain slaves.  Slavery was not abolished, it was simply recoded from chattel slavery to prison slavery.

Mass incarceration – the new slavery generates a budget of one hundred billion dollars ($100,000,000,000.00) per year just for African American inmates which averages $100,000/inmate.   One vision of reparation is to have our own land mass, sovereignty and issue our passport so as to shift funds from prison into infrastructure, sectoral, and human services budget for development of our country.  Africa will be developed; it should be developed by African Americans especially Liberia. 

Conclusion

Acknowledge African American land right to Liberia pursuant to ACS historical ties.

Extension of sovereignty to all African Americans. 

Dual citizenship – United States and Liberian citizenship.

Abolishment of prison slavery of moderate level inmates by allowing such workers to voluntarily serve time as contractors in development Corps in a country such as Liberia with capital investment in machinery and, technology in converting US prisons to vocational school.  

To establish and subsidized African American Airways, a fleet of 100 planes, international and domestic.