Harper (Liberia)
Region
The town of Harper is located on Cape Palmas, the most south-westerly point of the Republic of Liberia and also the southernmost point in West Africa.
Description
Harper is a small port town and the administrative center of the Maryland County, it is located near the border with Ivory Coast. The cliff- rich and rocky coast region around Harper ( Congo skirt, skirt Henderson, Billy skirt) with the mouth of the River Hoffman offered drinking water and two sheltered anchorages. To the southeast, a narrow, almost ten -kilometer-long strip of dunes forming a natural dam which separates the lagoon Lake Sheperd from the open sea. Harper to include the suburbs Old Kru Town and Tubman Town and a small airfield.
History
The name Harper is reminiscent of the U.S. politicians General Robert Goodloe Harper (1765-1825), this was a supporter of the Maryland Kolonialisations Society, which founded the colony of Maryland in Liberia on the West African coast on 12 February 1834. The colonists chose the located at Cape Palmas natural harbor as a settlement and trading post, it developed until 1850, the first city in the colony. Maryland was an economically successful colony thanks to the harbor and acquired on 29 May 1854, the state independence. Already on 18 March 1857, the autonomy was abandoned and the only president of this republic - Boston Jenkins Drayton - signed the Treaty of Accession to the state of Liberia in collaboration with Joseph Jenkins Roberts. This merger was preceded by a called a Kru -War Civil War, the numerically small group of colonists would not have survived without the military support of Liberians own estimation.
During the negotiations at the Congress of Berlin in 1885, the hitherto indefinite demarcation of the borders between the Republic of Liberia and the French and British colonial territories in West Africa was fixed state law. This was by France to the east of Cape Palmas lying coastal strip, an essential part of the former colony of Maryland, claimed and added to the colony of French West Africa.
After the First World War, the importance of the region went to Cape Palmas to decline, economic base was traditionally the fishing and palm oil production. In the 1930s, some rubber plantations were established in the hinterland, the port of Harper served the envelope of tropical timber.
In the Harper significant Liberian President William S. Tubman was born in 1895, he furthered his hometown and cultural politics by establishing the William S. Tubman library.
The population of the city was 17,837 inhabitants Harper at the reporting date (2008).
Attractions
In Harper are some testimonies and historical monuments from the 19th century to them include the Masonic Temple and the memorial to the former governor John Brown Russwurm. During the Civil War, many buildings were damaged and looted.
Personalities
- Gustav Nachtigal, German explorer, died on the way home from Cameroon Coming at sea and was buried on April 21, 1885 at Cape Palmas. 1888, the remains were transferred to Cameroon.
- John Brown Russwurm, Liberian politician and the first Governor of Maryland.
- Philipp Schönlein, swiss Africa traveler, passed away on January 8, 1856 in Cape Palmas - now Harper - after several weeks operated in the coastal region and the hinterland of Cape Palmas botanical and geographical studies.
Sons and daughters of the town
- William S. Tubman, former president of the Republic of Liberia