3-089-434 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Portrait of a ship, 1857. American passenger ship, the Mary Caroline Stevens. The republic of Liberia was founded by American ex-slaves on the eastern coast of Africa, and was a favoured resettlement locale of its patron organization, the American Colonization Society. However, when the Mary Caroline Stevens finally set sail for Monrovia on May 25 1863, she carried only 26 passengers. The prospect of a Liberian partnership with the American government quietly withered away, becoming a little-known "path not taken".