In 1930, the Republic of Liberia, an independent Black nation situated on the West African coast and member-state of the League of Nations took part in an international investigation. The tripartite investigation was summoned to dispel the long-standing rumors of forced labor and slavery in the country. While Liberia requested an impartial investigation, the global system that emerged after World War I was tilted in favor of empires and in the interests of private capital. Nevertheless, Liberians resisted these structures to safeguard their sovereignty, their ancestral lands, and way of life.

This dissertation examines that 1930 investigation to understand the plethora of motivations by internal and foreign actors in this period. It first looks at the geopolitical significance of Liberia through the lens of the global commodity of rubber and the international Black actors that resisted the twin impositions of colonialism and white supremacy. It then follows the members of the international Commission as they traversed through Europe and Liberia. Central to the dissertation are the observations of the Commissioners, the voices of people who conversed with the Commissioners, and the deponents that gave testimony before the international Commission.