An author on Anderson Cooper’s CNN program Thursday said the United States is uniquely obligated to maintain air links with the Ebola-ridden nation of Liberia, claiming it would be immoral to quarantine a nation created through “American slavery.”

Since the first U.S.-diagnosed case of Ebola cropped up earlier this week in Dallas, calls to ban flights from Ebola outbreak zones — particularly Liberia, where the patient contracted the virus – have exploded in American media.



But David Quammen, author of Ebola, believes the past sins of the United States require it to maintain travel links with the nation, despite the possible health consequences.

“We in America, how dare we turn our backs on Liberia, given the fact that this is a country that was founded in the 1820s, 1830s because of American slavery?” he told Cooper. “We have a responsibility to stay connected with them, and help them see this through.”

Beginning in 1820, thousands of freed African-American slaves colonized a patch of western Africa with the help of prominent American abolitionists. They named that nation ”Liberia,” modeling their flag and political institutions after the United States.