difficult as the Africans did not want to allow the colonists to curtail the slave trade in their territory, as it was the main driver of their economies. There continued to be divisions between the indigenous people and the colonists, particularly over the issue of slaving and what local chiefs perceived as the colonists' attempts to undermine their authority. The administrative policies of the Colonization Society, focused on the cultural assimilation of the native population and their conversion to Christianity. In 1839, the colonists of the various coastal settlements decided to form the Liberian Commonwealth in an effort to unify their policies and provide for mutual protection. They drafted a Constitution, which defined citizens as people of color emigrating from the United States and its territories. Rights were granted only to the Americo-Liberian people, but liberated slaves captured from slaving vessels could be naturalized. Liberated slaves, referred to as Congos or recaptives, were from various places in Africa and were brought to Liberia and Sierra Leone and freed. Because of a large influx of liberated slaves, the colonists passed the Apprenticeship Act of 1846, which allowed recaptives to naturalize after completing an apprenticeship to teach them a trade or domestic service, and educate them. European merchants, many of whom were involved in the slave trade, refused to recognize the authority of the commonwealth to control commerce in its territory. Meanwhile, the neighboring British authorities in Sierra Leone adopted the position that Liberia was not a sovereign nation, but instead managed by a foreign corporation which lacked jurisdictional authority. To rectify the situation, the legislature of the commonwealth asked for Liberia's independence from the American Colonization Society in 1845. In 1847, the Board of Directors of the Society agreed and instructed the legislature to amend their constitution to take over governmental administration. Post-independence (1847–present) On 26 July 1847, independence was declared and subsequently a constitution drafted for the new republic. Under the terms of the 1847 Constitution, indigenous persons were subjects of the new republic but not citizens. Citizenship was limited to non-aboriginal "Negroes" and the franchise was based upon property ownership. Between 1858 and 1874, explorers from Monrovia traveled from the coast to the interior of Liberia making treaties with the aboriginal people for friendship and trade and negotiate the purchase of land to extend the territory of the republic. The policies continued to extend to aboriginal persons the ability