Treaties & documents · 15 December 1821
The Ducor Contract
The founding deed of Liberia — a cession of the Cape Mesurado ground obtained under armed coercion.
Biography
Drawn up aboard the U.S. schooner Alligator, the contract bears the marks of six kings of the Mesurado country, among them Jimmy, Long Peter and Zolu Duma, and the signatures of Lieutenant Robert F. Stockton and Dr Eli Ayres.
The consideration was a list of trade goods — muskets, powder, tobacco, cloth, beads, rum, mirrors, food and iron — of an assessed value far below the land's worth by any contemporary measure.
Contemporary accounts, including Bayard's life of Stockton, record that Zolu Duma tried to withdraw and was compelled at pistol-point.
Historical significance
Every later question about Liberian land law and settler–indigenous relations traces back to this document and to the gap between what its signatories understood and what its holders claimed.
Timeline
- Dec 1821Negotiations at Cape Mesurado
- 15 Dec 1821Marks and signatures affixed aboard the Alligator
- Apr 1822Repudiated by subordinate chiefs; crisis mediated
- May 1825Signatories restate their understanding at Gourah
Related entries
References
- Ducor Contract, 15 December 1821. Indiana University Liberian Collections.
- Bayard (1856). A Sketch of the Life of Commodore Robert F. Stockton.
Suggested reading
- Burrowes (2023). A History of Liberia in 100 Documents.