The Scene of Suffering and Misery Is Beyond Description

Abstract

All was not peaceful in Liberia in the months before the Majors and Harlans (the Majors’ former neighbors from Kentucky) arrived. In a flashback, chapter 5 reveals the violence that awaits the new settlers. Port Cresson is a small settlement established by the New York Colonization Society and the Young Men’s Colonization Society of Pennsylvania. The village, near where the Luna will disembark passengers a year later, is attacked by a group of indigenous warriors in June 1835. In a single horrible night, twenty people—three men, four women, and thirteen children—are slaughtered. Survivors flee to nearby Edina. The slave trade, supported by many of the indigenous ethnic groups, is behind the attack. The vice agent of the colony survives the attack, but he and his wife are done with Liberia and promptly sail for America. Thomas Buchanan, a cousin of James Buchanan who would later become president of the United States, replaces Hankinson as agent.