American Colonization Society

Not to be confused with Colonization movement.
See also: Abolitionism in the United States

American Colonization Society
AbbreviationACS
FormationDecember 21, 1816; 207 years ago (1816-12-21)
FounderRobert Finley
Founded atDavis Hotel, Washington DC
Dissolved1964; 60 years ago (1964)[1]
PurposeTo facilitate the migration of free people of color from the United States to the Colony of Liberia.
Region served
United States & Liberia
FundingMembership fees, Congressional grants
Formerly called
Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America
Robert Finley founded the American Colonization Society.

The American Colonization Society (ACS), initially the Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America, was an American organization founded in 1816 by Robert Finley to encourage and support the repatriation of freeborn people of color and emancipated slaves to the continent of Africa. It was modeled on an earlier British Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor's colonization in Africa, which had sought to resettle London's "black poor". Until the organization's dissolution in 1964, the society was headquartered in Room 516 of the Colorado Building in Washington, D.C.[2]

The American Colonization Society was established in 1816 to address the prevailing view that free people of color could not integrate into U.S. society; their population had grown steadily following the American Revolutionary War, from 60,000 in 1790 to 300,000 by 1830.[3]: 26  Slave owners feared that these free Black people might help their slaves to escape or rebel.

The African-American community and the abolitionist movement overwhelmingly opposed the project. According to "the colored citizens of Syracuse," headed by Rev. Jermain Loguen,

We recognize in it ["the scheme of African Colonization"] the most intense hatred of the colored race, clad in the garb of pretended philanthropy; and we regard the revival of colonization societies...as...manifestations of a passion fit only for demons to indulge in.[4]

In most cases, African American families had lived in the United States for generations, and their prevailing sentiment was that they were no more African than white Americans were British. Contrary to claims that their emigration was voluntary, many African Americans, both free and enslaved, were pressured into emigrating.[5]: 343  Indeed, enslavers, such as Zephaniah Kingsley,[6] sometimes freed their slaves on condition that the freedmen leave the country immediately.[7][8]

According to historian Marc Leepson, "Colonization proved to be a giant failure, doing nothing to stem the forces that brought the nation to Civil War."[9] Between 1821 and 1847, only a few thousand African Americans, out of millions, emigrated to what would become Liberia, while the increase in Black population in the U.S. during those same years was about 500,000. By 1833, the Society had transported only 2,769 individuals out of the U.S.[10] According to Zephaniah Kingsley, the cost of transporting the Black population of the United States to Africa would exceed the annual revenues of the country.[11]: 73  Mortality was the highest since accurate record-keeping began: close to half the arrivals in Liberia died from tropical diseases, especially malaria; during the early years, 22% of immigrants died within one year.[11]: 55 n. 24  Moreover, the provisioning and transportation of requisite tools and supplies proved very expensive.[12]

Starting in the 1830s, the society was met with great hostility from abolitionists, led by Gerrit Smith, who had supported the society financially, and William Lloyd Garrison, author of Thoughts on African Colonization (1832), in which he proclaimed the society a fraud. According to Garrison and his many followers, the society was not a solution to the problem of American slavery—it actually was helping, and was intended to help, to preserve it.[13][14]: 46–50 

  1. ^ Brenton, Felix (December 30, 2008). "American Colonization Society (1816-1964)". blackpast.org. Retrieved October 18, 2023.
  2. ^ Keiser, Robert L. (December 28, 1928). Liberia; a report on the relations between the United States and Liberia. declassified (Second Series B, No. 1, Liberia No. 1 ed.). Washington: United States Department of State (published September 23, 1954). p. 92.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Irvine was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "Anti-Colonization Meeting". The Liberator. April 15, 1853. p. 2.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Goodell was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Fleszar, Mark J. (December 2012). "'My Laborers in Haiti Are Not Slaves': Proslavery Fictions and a Black Colonization Experiment on the Northern Coast, 1835–1846". Journal of the Civil War Era. 2 (4): 478–512, at p. 478. doi:10.1353/cwe.2012.0084. JSTOR 26070274. S2CID 161344657.
  7. ^ Power-Greene, Ousmane (2014). Against Wind and Tide: The African American Struggle Against the Colonization Movement. New York: New York University Press. pp. 1–10. ISBN 9781479823178.
  8. ^ Key, Francis Scott (November 1836). "Mr. Key on the Colonization Society". African Repository and Colonial Journal. 12 (11): 339–351, at pp. 346–347 and 350–351. Neither he nor the Colonization Society called for the abolition of slavery; their mission instead focused solely on sending freed blacks to Africa. This was one of the reasons that few abolitionists had any use for the society.
  9. ^ Leepson, Marc (2014). What So Proudly We Hailed: Francis Scott Key, A Life. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. p. xiii. ISBN 9781137278289.
  10. ^ Murray, Orson S. (June 23, 1834). "Jeremiah Hubbard's letter". Middlebury Free Press. Middlebury, Vermont. p. 1 – via newspapers.com.
  11. ^ a b Kingsley, Zephaniah (2000). "A Treatise on the Patriarchal, or Co-operative System of Society (1828–1[8]34)". In Stowell, Daniel W. (ed.). Balancing Evils Judiciously. The Proslavery Writings of Zephaniah Kingsley. University Press of Florida. pp. 39–75. ISBN 0813017335.
  12. ^ "The American Colonization Society". WHHA (en-US). Retrieved November 9, 2022.
  13. ^ Garrison, Wm. Lloyd (1832). Thoughts on African Colonization. Boston: Garrison and Knapp. pp. 11–13.
  14. ^ Dann, Norman K. (2011). Whatever It Takes. The Antislavery Movement and the Tactics of Gerrit Smith. Hamilton, New York: Log Cabin Books. ISBN 9780975554883.