Where did Liberia house get its name? Some speculated that it was because the land where Liberia was built (inherited from the powerful Carter family) was named the Cancer tract, a sign of the zodiac. But it seems that William James Weir, who built Liberia, named it for a cause near to his heart. He was a member of the American Colonization Society, a group formed in 1817 to promote the freeing—but not the freedom—of the enslaved. Instead, the group advocated sending freed slaves to the new coun