The Darling

In the early 1820s, white Americans, having noticed the presence of a growing number of ex-slaves on the streets of northern cities, began to realize for the first time that they were facing not just a slavery problem, but a race problem as well. ...Its dimensions were mythic and deeply threatening to most white Americans' dearly held view of themselves as a morally and racially pure, not to say, superior, people. ...

And thus, in short order, was established the first U.S. colony. Soon to be known as the Republic of Liberia, it was organized from the start to operate not as a straightforward colony, but as a covert surrogate, clamped tight to the white-skinned leg of its North American founding fatherland. ...

The black Americans in Africa had duplicated nicely the old Southern and Caribbean plantation overseer system.

--from The Darling, a novel by Russell Banks