CHAPTER XXVII.
HOME-LIFE OF LIBERIAN WOMEN.
"The hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that moves the world."
Nowhere is the truth of this familiar adage more clearly exemplified than in the young negro republic—"The Lone Star"—Liberia.
As we look back through the vista of years to the time before Liberia's corner-stone was laid, at the very beginning of the country's existence, we find woman at work, exerting her influence and exhausting her talents and strength to make its foundation sure. Her influence, the lever power which raises nations, which moves the world, has ever been a potent factor in advancing the welfare of the country. She has ever been willing and ready to share its burdens, encounter its obstacles and struggles and endure its hardships.
This assertion is evidenced by the fact that soon after the arrival of the first colonists or emigrants in the country, which was at Monrovia, in 1821, the native chiefs perceived that, in all probability, the coming to their shores, to live in their midst, of Christian women would interfere with their nefarious traffic in slavery, which had long prevailed in the neighborhood. Therefore, regardless of the treaty by which they had ceded the territory, they determined to destroy the settlement if they could. The temporary dwellings that had been slightly and hastily put up were consumed by the torch
