PHOTO: The Author
By: Rev. Torli H. Krua, Founder, The Free Liberia Movement Tel: +1-857-249-9983
Massachusetts Representative Benjamin Swan — also honored in Liberia as Paramount Chief Wonser of Nimba County — passed away on May 25, 2026, African Liberation Day.
A lifelong champion of civil rights, education, racial justice, and historical truth, Benjamin Swan became one of Massachusetts’ clearest voices calling America to confront the unfinished contradictions of its democracy. During visits to Liberia, he met with national leaders, including Speaker Tyler, Senate President Wortorson, and former U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, and spoke openly about a history long buried beneath official silence: that Liberia was not simply the project of the American Colonization Society, but was established through direct federal action by the United States government itself.
Representative Swan traced this contradiction to the founding ideals of the American Revolution and the promise of the 1776 Declaration of Independence and the 1780 Massachusetts Constitution, which declared that “all men are born free and equal.” He often pointed to the landmark Brom and Bett v. Ashley case, in which Elizabeth “Mumbet” Freeman — an enslaved Black woman born before the American Revolution — won both freedom and monetary damages, helping to lead Massachusetts toward the effective abolition of slavery in 1783.
Yet while Massachusetts moved toward liberty, the federal government entrenched racial exclusion through the Three-Fifths Compromise, the 1790 Naturalization Actrestricting citizenship to “free white persons,” the Fugitive Slave Act, and later the Indian Removal Act. Swan argued that these policies created a racial hierarchy that betrayed the ideals of the Revolution and ultimately contributed to the removal and settlement of Black American citizens in Africa under the guise of benevolence.
He frequently highlighted the 1819 Slave Trade Act, through which Congress appropriated federal funds, authorized the U.S. Navy, and created the United States Agency for Liberated Africans to establish a colony in West Africa for “citizens of the United States.” Fifteen years before the American Colonization Society was formally incorporated, federal power and public money had already laid the foundation for Liberia. On April 25, 1822, the U.S. Navy raised the American flag and fired gun salutes over Cape Mesurado, establishing what Swan described as an American jurisdiction in Africa.
Representative Swan also spoke about the contradiction that settlers — many of them descendants of Black Patriots and free Black citizens from states such as Massachusetts — were encouraged to establish a republic under the American flag while indigenous Africans were excluded from citizenship and political power. He noted that in 1844, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee investigated the American Colonization Society and declared its charters “null and void,” further exposing the inconsistencies surrounding the colonization project.
In 2008, Swan publicly called for truth, reconciliation, and repair. Speaking in Liberia, he declared that granting U.S. citizenship to Liberians would be “a matter of reciprocity,” noting that Liberia had welcomed African Americans from the United States for generations and granted them automatic citizenship. He called for “U.S. citizenship for all persons born in Liberia” as a moral response to the shared history between the two nations and the sacrifices made by descendants of Black Patriots removed from America.
Swan argued that restoring dignity requires restoring rights. As America approaches its 250th anniversary, he reminded the nation that “250 years” does not equal 250 years of liberty, equality, and justice for all Americans. In 2026, more than one billion people from over forty countries may enter the United States through the Visa Waiver Program, yet not a single African nation is included — not even Liberia, a country established to settle American citizens in Africa and one that supported the United States during World War II.
On African Liberation Day, Swan’s final message remains urgent: America must restore trust, liberty, equality, and justice for all. Honoring his legacy begins with truth, reconciliation, and meaningful acts of repair — including granting gratis visas to Liberian family members and dignitaries traveling to celebrate the life of a man who dared to tell the truth buried for more than two centuries.
In the spirit of Moses the liberator, Representative Swan’s departing message to America can be summed up in four enduring words:
“Let my people go.”