Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf empahsizes bond between her nation and America | VIDEO

ALBANY — Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is proud of her country and her family, and she was in town Monday to promote both. Speaking before a packed fundraising even at the Albany Museum of Art, Sirleaf brought up the close connection between the United States and Liberia, a country colonized by freed slaves.

Mobile users go here to see the video of President Sirleaf’s appearance Monday night at the AMA.

“Liberia was born with the quest for freedom,” Sirleaf said. “Freedom by many who were in this country and who had been freed and saw a home for that in the historical connection between Liberia and the United States, the Southern United States in particular. Our flag, our constitution, our national symbols, our culture are all part of the American connection.

In the 1820s, Liberia began to be colonized by freed American slaves and in 1847 the Republic of Liberia came into being. The new nation developed a deep bond with America. However the path to freedom was not smooth.

“Our country was filled over the years since its founding to provide a place for refuge not so unlike your own country,” she said. “We prospered, but we made some mistakes; mistakes that cost us dearly in not being able to recognize that Liberia was indeed an African country with a population that was already there. And so the assimilation that brought together the national unity that was so much needed did not happen as it should have.

“And so over the years that cleavage that was was not bridged ultimately led to the coup d’