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"Back to Africa?" The Colonization Movement in Early America
Author: Timothy Crumrin, Conner Prairie Historian. Graphics courtesy the Indiana State Archive and Indiana Division—Indiana State
Library.
Following the Revolutionary War, a conflict aswirl with
ideas about rights of man, the "Peculiar Institution" of
slavery and those bound within it grew. Conversely, due in
part to manumission efforts sparked by the war and the
abolition of slavery in Northern states, there was an
expansion of the ranks of free blacks. Their number grew
from a few thousand in 1760 to 319,000 by 1830.
This increase did not go unnoticed by a wary white
community that kept a weather eye out for the free blacks
in their midst. The arguments propounded against free
blacks, especially in free states, may be divided into four
main areas. One argument pointed toward the perceived
moral laxity of blacks. Blacks, some said, were licentious
beings who would draw whites into their savage.
unrestrained ways. These fears of an intermingling of the
races were strong and underlay much of the outcry for
removal.
Along those same lines, blacks were accused of a tendency
toward criminality and were thought inclined to deviate
from the straight and narrow path. Still others claimed
that the mental inferiority of African-Americans made
them unfit for the duties of citizenship and incapable of
real improvement. Economic considerations were also put
forth. Free blacks, it was thought, would only take jobs
away from whites. This feeling was especially strong
among the "working class" in the North. The Southerner
had his special reservations about free blacks. It was
feared that freedmen located in slave areas would act as an
enticing reminder of what freedom might mean and
encourage runaways and slave revolts.
Exclusionary and colonization movements came about
partially in response to these feelings. Efforts were made
to exclude blacks by custom and law. When simply
shunning African-Americans did not do the trick, some
areas passed restrictive legislation. Indiana, for example,
enacted such laws in 1831. One provision stated that free
blacks entering Indiana had to post a bond of $500.00
with local authorities. The bond was to guarantee that the
person was to maintain good behavior and not become a
burden upon the public treasury. The bond was forfeited
should the person be convicted of a crime. Authorities
could expel blacks who failed to pay the bond or hire their
services out to provide for it. Though seldom enforced,
such laws are an indication of the negrophobic attitudes
that often prevailed throughout the period. It must be
pointed out that many of those in Indiana who had earlier
opposed the introduction of slavery into the state did not
do so out of sympathy for blacks. It was not a moral issue
for many; their antipathy toward slavery was motivated by
a dislike for African-Americans and the big "plantation
economy" that had driven many of them from their
Southern homes.
Colonization was another movement that, in part, drew
upon such feelings. One of the first calls for the removal
of blacks to Africa or other locations came in 1714.
Further calls were made following the Revolutionary War
Some of these plans called for gradual emancipation
followed by colonization, while others sought to rid the
country only of free blacks. Some blacks themselves
advanced such schemes. Paul Cuffee, a black -Indian,
Quaker ship captain, aided nearly forty blacks who
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emigrated the Sierra Leone, Africa, where the British were
colonizing blacks, in 1815. One idea briefly floated during
the War of 1812 sought to colonize free blacks on lands in
the Indiana and Illinois territories.
But the most famous and important proponent was the
American Colonization Society. Organized in 1816, its
purpose was aptly evoked by its name The organization's
official title was the American Society for Colonizing the
Free People of Color in the United States. One of the
founding fathers of the society was Rev. Robert Finley.
Finley was instrumental in getting such luminaries as
Francis Scott Key, Henry Clay, and Andrew Jackson to
lend their names to the movement. The Society's first
President was Bushrod Washington, nephew of the great
man himself.
It can certainly be said that the initial seed of the
movement was high-minded. It grew out of the
benevolent impulses current after the War of 1812. It was
not until it later drew many disparate groups wishing to
march under its banner that its motives came into
question. Early leaders seem to have sincerely believed
that the scheme was the best for all involved. They
realized that African-Americans would never be accepted
by the vast majority of white America. By removing
people of color they hoped to enable them to embark
upon a better life, while at the same time relieving a source
of tension in the nation. Some also thought of it as a plan
that would encourage slaveowners to free their charges.
Clergymen were among the Society's staunchest
supporters.
Initially rebuffed when it sought funding from the federal
government, the Society relied on donations to implement
its programs. The first group of colonizers, black
"workmen" and their families totaling 86 people, set forth
in 1820. Their first settlement was on Sherbro Island off
the west coast of Africa, but it ultimately failed due to the
disease and the reluctance shown by native people to
accept the immigrants. After failing to reach a satisfactory
lease on land in Sierra Leone, agents of the Society forced
the ruler of lands near Cape Mesurado to sell them lands
on Africa's west coast. The price of this new country to be
named Liberia was less than three hundred dollars in
goods and trinkets.
Although it was later to receive monies from federal and
state governments, finances were always a problem for the
Society. For that reason it began to set up state chapters,
Indiana's was formed in 1829, and local auxiliaries were
begun to raise funds and spread its ideas. As mentioned
earlier it was to attract a diverse group of followers. One
historian has indicated that supporters may be divided into
three main groups. The first, those who genuinely felt that
it was the best solution to a difficult problem and might
lead to a gradual emancipation, has already been
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mentioned. Another, smaller, element was a proslavery
group who saw removal as an answer to the problems
associated with "dangerous" free blacks.
Perhaps the largest group of supporters was made up of
those who opposed slavery, but did not believe in
anything remotely resembling equality of the races. This
group also backed removal. To varying degrees, these
people accepted views about the unworthiness of AfricanAmericans. This was especially true of those supporters
who lived in the Midwest, whose racial prejudices had
long been commented upon. That keen-eyed observer of
America and Americans, Alexis De Tocqueville, wrote
that anti-Negro feeling was greatest "in those states where
slavery has never been known."
The fortunes of the Society ebbed and flowed over the
years. In all nearly 11,000 blacks were resettled in Liberia,
half of them newly freed slaves. Ultimately, the Society
failed to live up to its proponents great hopes. The
reasons for its failure were many. One was financial. There
were seldom enough dollars to pay for the costs of
transportation, land grants, and subsistence expenses The
many different supporters could never agree upon a
uniform policy to meet their ends. Such agreement was
difficult at best with adherents who often held
diametrically opposite views from one another. As cries
for abolition grew stronger in the country, the basis of the
movement was called into question. Ardent abolitionists
like William Lloyd Garrison, who once supported the
Society, began to see it as a racist organization that could
only hinder the cause of emancipation. That last criticism
points to the principal reasons Colonization in general and
the American Colonization Society, specifically, failed.
One point that cannot be emphasized too strongly about
colonization is that it was an essentially white experiment.
It was begun by white Americans, promoted by whites,
and in the end was meant to benefit white America the
most. Some blacks were hired to act as agents and
proselytize for the movement, but it was an essentially
white movement. The view that blacks were inferior was
at the basis of the movement. The realization by many of
this central tenet was to lose the movement many
potential supporters.
But the major reason the movement did not enjoy more
success was quite simple. It blithely ignored one cardinal
point: the vast majority of those who were meant to
colonize did not wish to leave. Most free blacks simply did
not want to go "home" to a place from which they were
generations removed. America, not Africa, was their home
and they had little desire migrate to a strange and
forbidding land not their own.
Check out this excellent site which contains an online
database of immigrants to Liberia from 1820 to 1843 from
which the map above was supplied.