We Have Had War with the Natives

Abstract

Agnes Harlan’s son Lewis is dying of malaria. Despite her fervent prayers and attentive care, she loses her oldest child. On average, 20 percent of every boatload of immigrants to Liberia dies of malaria in the first year. In Tolbert Major’s May 1839 letter to Ben, he includes a short note to another man, James Moore, in which he reveals that Agnes has lost two of her sons since arriving in Liberia. Tolbert asks Moore to contact George Harlan, Agnes’s former owner, to tell him the news. The chapter discusses risks to health in Liberia, similar health risks in America, the Liberian system known as “pawning,” and a recent war with some of the indigenous people.