his brother's tuition. Henry returned to Liberia to work as a physician. In 1833, Joseph Roberts became high sheriff of the colony. One of his responsibilities was to organize militias to travel to the interior to collect taxes from the indigenous peoples and put down their raids against areas under colonial rule. In 1839, the American Colonization Society appointed Roberts as vice governor. Two years later, after the death of governor Thomas Buchanan, Roberts was appointed as the first African-American governor of Liberia. Roberts’ skills as a diploma and a politician soon became apparent. He became convinced that Liberia had the potential. Then the legislature called for a referendum, in which voters chose independence. On July 26, 1847, a group of eleven delegates declared Liberia independent. He won the first presidential election on October 5, 1847, and was sworn into office on January 3, 1848, with Nathaniel Brander as vice president. First presidency (1848–1856) Roberts was re-elected three more times to serve a total of eight years, until he lost the election in 1855 to Vice President Benson. Attempts to found a state based upon some 3,000 settlers proved difficult. Some coastal ethnic groups were converted to Christianity and learned English, but most of the indigenous Africans of the area retained their traditional religions and languages. They also continued to take part in the Atlantic Slave Trade operated by European slavers along the coast. The slave trade continued illegally from ports along the Liberian coast, but the British Royal Navy along with that of the United States finally helped to close it down in the 1850s. Foreign relations Roberts spent the first year of his presidency attempting to attain recognition from the United States, where it was opposed mainly by southern congressmen, as well as several European nations with neighboring colonies. In 1848 he traveled to Europe to meet Queen Victoria and other heads of state. The UK was the first country to recognize Liberia as an independent country, followed by France in 1848 or 1852 (accounts differ). In 1849, the German cities of Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck recognized the new nation, as did Kingdom of Portugal, Empire of Brazil, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the Austrian Empire. Norway and Sweden did so in either 1849 or 1863, Haiti in either 1849 or 1864, Denmark in either 1849 or 1869 (accounts differ). The United States withheld recognition until February 5,