What Event Ended Official Efforts to Colonize the Black Population?

In the belatedly eighteenth century, the original thirteen colonies dissolved and formed the United States. In 1787, delegates to the Ramble Convention gathered in Philadelphia to craft a new federal government for the nation. The new Constitution protected the institution of slavery to fulfill an immediate and of import demand for a labor forcefulness, and preserved the hierarchy that kept white, male landowners at the helm of the leadership of the immature country. While the Constitution ensured that slavery would be an integral part of the nation's economy, political leaders and enslavers worried virtually the growing free Black population in their corresponding states. Many feared that complimentary Black people would encourage and aid the enslaved population to rebel. They sought a solution that would remove this threat to the institution of slavery but would not create economic disruption.¹

A series of insurrections and rebellions sparked new debates over slavery and emancipation, likewise as colonization. The Haitian Revolution and the emergence of an independent Republic of haiti created an atmosphere of fear and terror in the white population of the United States. In August 1791, enslaved and free people of color across the colony of Saint Domingue fomented a revolt and seized control of the colony from the colonial ability of France. Declaring independence on January 1, 1804, the new republic of Haiti became the world's first Black republic and the outset independent nation in the Caribbean area. The Haitian Revolution is also the but successful attempt where enslaved people liberated themselves from a colonial power in the western hemisphere.² Many enslavers and supporters of slavery in the Usa heard how free people of color participated and fought alongside the enslaved in the Haitian Revolution. These reports reinforced their shared belief that free Black people were an active threat to the institution of slavery and needed to exist separated from the residue of the country'due south population.³

In 1800, officials in Richmond uncovered plans for an coup led by an enslaved person, Gabriel, suggesting that the Haitian Revolution encouraged other enslaved people to rise upwards confronting their enslavers.⁴ Both the Haitian Revolution and Gabriel's Rebellion prompted white leaders to take precautions to foreclose a race war from breaking out in the state. Virginia passed laws creating tighter restrictions on or outright prohibiting emancipation, while legislation in Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri policed and restricted the movement of enslaved and free Blackness people.^five State legislatures and other leaders in white communities debated how to manage or remove the free Blackness population, every bit they feared this group would inspire enslaved people to revolt and assist their attempts to escape.

This print depicts Toussaint-Fifty'Ouverture, leader of the Haitian Revolution, holding Haiti's Constitution of 1801 before God and his countrymen.

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As give-and-take of enslaved-led insurrections around the globe began to spread, enslavers and other leaders attempted to control the free Black population with new restrictions and codes. The restrictions besides led many white leaders to consider colonization to rid the U.S. of free Black people. Through colonization, the free Blackness population would be settled in their own nation, eliminating the group of people deemed an imminent threat to the institution of slavery.^vi A few proponents of colonization initially suggested the creation of a colony for Blackness people westward of the Mississippi or the West Indies. But after Paul Cuffe, a mixed race Quaker, ship architect, and activist, fabricated a successful, self-financed trip with thirty-eight Black people to Sierra Leone for the purpose of settling other free Black people in 1815, other supporters of colonization deemed the western coast of Africa the ideal location for a new colony.⁷ The perceived success of Cuffe's voyage, along with the desire to remove free Black people from the United states altogether, served as the inspiration for the American Colonization Society.

Originally known as the American Lodge for Colonizing the Complimentary People of Color of the United States, the American Colonization Society (ACS) was founded in 1816 by a group of white elites including Reverend Robert Finley, Charles Fenton Mercer, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Bushrod Washington, Elias Caldwell, and Francis Scott Key.⁸ Formed to assist in the colonization and removal of free Black people, the ACS quickly recruited support and financial backing from enslavers, the Protestant and Presbyterian churches, and others, including the federal government officials.^ix

While the ACS had been founded with primarily proslavery motivations, the origins of the organization likewise advise a commitment, albeit loose, to abolitionist beliefs. Every bit a result, the members of ACS were an unusual mix of abolitionists and enslavers—2 groups that typically opposed each other. While they had very dissimilar principal goals, they agreed that free Blackness people would never be accepted as equals in the United states of america. Abolitionist-leaning members believed it was an opportunity for African Americans to escape racism, start their lives afresh, and form their own nation where they could savor liberation and citizenship. It too removed the challenges integration would place on white people. Pro-slavery supporters considered information technology a means to remove those who might threaten slavery.¹⁰ Colonization was considered a somewhat progressive measure out for the time, receiving support from people on both sides of the debate over slavery and abolitionism. While members had many motivations for joining the ACS and dissimilar opinions on the upshot of slavery, the underlying conventionalities that whites and Black people could not peacefully co-exist in guild held this unorthodox group together for decades.¹¹

Image of the American Colonization Society membership document of President James Madison. Madison served as the 3rd president of the Order.

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As the ACS grew, the organization sought to create and settle a colony in W Africa to fulfill its mission. In early on 1820, the first group of emigrants, numbering around eighty-six people, prepare canvass for Due west Africa. Considering many of the emigrants fell ill with "African fever" and the rainy season impacted travel to the coast, this trip was not as successful as supporters hoped. To avoid a repeat of these issues, the ACS and its agents decided to send future groups during a different time of twelvemonth.¹² In 1821, the adjacent group of emigrants and ACS agents traveled to Westward Africa, stopping in Sierra Leone to search for a suitable colony to buy and settle. In December, the ACS purchased land forth the W African coast for settlement and created the colony of Montserado, later known every bit Liberia. The capital in the colony was after named Monrovia in honour of President James Monroe, an agog supporter of the ACS.¹³ Click here to learn more than about the enslaved households of President James Monroe.

From the founding of the organization, many people across the country supported the ACS and the idea of colonization, including many powerful government officials. President Thomas Jefferson was an early supporter of the colonization move. During his time in the White House, he and Governor James Monroe corresponded virtually their ideas for moving the free Black population out of Virginia. His treatise, Notes on the State of Virginia, which covered topics including a programme for emancipation and colonization of freed Black people, probable influenced Governor Monroe's button for emancipation and colonization laws in Virginia later on Gabriel'south Rebellion.¹⁴ President Jefferson fifty-fifty contacted the American Government minister to Uk, Rufus Rex, to inquire nigh setting up a colony in the British colony of Sierra Leone—which the British ultimately rejected.¹⁵ Jefferson's ideas and support for colonization offered crucial early backing for the ACS and encouraged other notable members to join the organization. Click here to larn more about the enslaved households of President Thomas Jefferson.

President James Madison was also a strong supporter of the ACS. He was elected the tertiary president of the organization in 1833 and served until his decease in 1836.¹⁶ President Madison, like President Jefferson, was an early advocate for colonization and developed his own ideas about how the process should work. In an 1819 letter, President Madison stated, "the freed blacks ought to exist permanently removed across the region occupied past or allotted to a White population," a conventionalities held by some of his peers of that period.¹⁷ President Madison also argued for emancipation to exist gradual and equitable to all involved, even stating that "the consent of both the Master & the slave should be obtained."¹⁸ Although President Madison supported colonization and disagreed with the practice of slavery, he never emancipated his enslaved laborers during his lifetime or subsequently his expiry, nor did he offer them the opportunity to emigrate to Liberia.¹⁹ Click here to learn more than well-nigh the enslaved households of President James Madison.

While President Madison was non an outspoken supporter of the ACS until after his presidency, he provided meaning financial support. Upon his death, he willed his enslaved laborers to his wife, Dolley, and left $two,000 to the ACS. The money for the ACS was to come from the selling of his papers, also left to Dolley Madison, which the federal government ended up publishing afterward debating the government's affiliation with the ACS.²⁰ While President Madison never participated in the colonization process considering he did non desire to transport free Black people to Liberia without their consent, he bequeathed considerable financial back up for the ACS so the organization could proceed its work.²¹

Like his immediate predecessors, President James Monroe was a supporter of colonization and the ACS. During his tenure as governor, Monroe played an active role in the movement to punish formerly enslaved Black people who supported or actively participated in enslaved-led uprisings by transporting them exterior of Virginia. He later pushed colonization as a solution to deal with the free Blackness community that terrified the white, landowning, and enslaving population.²² While not explicitly active with the main affiliate of the arrangement during his presidency, President Monroe did use his influence and power in the White House to assist the ACS obtain the necessary say-so to carry out its early voyages.

President Monroe was primarily motivated by his desire to preserve the Marriage by removing any threats to its future, which benefited the ACS. During his presidency, President Monroe became close friends with ACS co-founder Charles Fenton Mercer, a former member of the Virginia General Assembly. Upon Mercer'due south transition to Congress, the ii worked together to push for colonization on a national level by passing legislation that aided ACS's efforts. In early 1819, Mercer introduced a bill that would improve the 1807 law banning American participation in the African slave trade. The new provisions chosen for the United states Navy to patrol the African declension and intercept any slave ships, and required the president to return the Africans on the ship. The Navy would too provide agents on the coast that would aid with the resettlement of these Africans and other freed people. After Congress passed the bill, President Monroe signed it into law in March 1819.²³ Because of Mercer'southward connection to the ACS, the organization nominated delegates who served equally agents on the African coast and used funds appropriated in the bill to agents to purchase country for a settlement.²⁴

This ACS pamphlet, meant to encourage emigration to Liberia, answers frequently asked questions nigh life in Africa.

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President Monroe could not explicitly endorse the ACS while in office, just he found other ways to back up the arrangement. President Monroe worked to suppress the slave trade and even provided some private financial support to the colony of Republic of liberia. To honor Monroe, the ACS passed a resolution in 1824 that renamed Liberia'south capital after him.²⁵ After his presidency concluded, Monroe became more than open in his support of colonization and the ACS, serving as president of an auxiliary chapter of the ACS and, afterward, vice president of the Colonization Order of Virginia.²⁶ Like his predecessors, President Monroe never participated in colonization past emancipating his enslaved laborers and sending them to Republic of liberia, despite his conventionalities that slavery was "unjust and a detriment to the U.s.a.."²⁷

Even though he is known as a champion for emancipation and freedom for Black people, President Abraham Lincoln also endorsed colonization earlier in his life and even during his presidency. He believed that Black and white people could not coexist after emancipation and supported sending freed Black people to Republic of liberia or Central America.²⁸ On August 14, 1862, President Lincoln invited a grouping of prominent Black leaders to the White House to discuss colonization. He argued that Blackness and white people were not capable of living together in the Us and that it was unfair to both groups to have to suffer in the other's presence.²⁹ During the Ceremonious War, Lincoln engaged in more dialogue with Blackness leaders and his views on emancipation and colonization evolved to those he expressed later on in his presidency. Click here to learn more most the household of President Abraham Lincoln.

In spite of strong back up for the ACS and its mission, the system and its efforts failed because of opposition from the costless Black community and its leaders. Much of the gratis Blackness community, particularly those in northern states, felt they were American citizens past birth and had no interest in leaving their homeland to alive in a identify they did not know or feel connected to in whatever meaningful way.³⁰ As a result, few free Black people willingly traveled to the colony of Liberia, and over time, the number of emigrants decreased from 11,420 in 1830 to 7,836 by 1852.³¹

Alphabetic character from R.R. Gurley, Secretarial assistant of the American Colonization Society, to James Madison congratulating him on his unanimous ballot to president of the American Colonization Social club.

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The emigrants besides dealt with severe challenges upon their inflow in Liberia and the poor living weather condition in the colony deterred other complimentary Blackness people from settling in the colony.³² The settlers suffered from a high mortality rate and faced hostility from the indigenous peoples who tried to defend their homeland from colonizers.³³ The ACS's efforts to receive funding from country and federal governments, besides as private donors, likewise deteriorated as reports from Liberia revealed difficulties in settling the land. These reports also undermined interest from the free Blackness community and created additional funding bug for the colony. The ACS too lacked the funding to successfully support multiple voyages to and from Liberia, and to maintain and protect the colony. Despite having significant private and public backing at the local and national levels at the beginning, the ACS and colonization were not sustainable ideas. After Liberia gained its independence in 1847, the arrangement further stagnated and the American Colonization Social club formally dissolved in 1964.³⁴

In theory, colonization appeared to be an ideal solution to complicated and intertwined problems involving slavery, race relations, and the preservation of the Union. Many members of the American Colonization Social club viewed their efforts as benevolent, only they gave piffling consideration to the opinions of free African Americans or how these measures would touch individuals, families, and communities of colour. Colonization became a user-friendly alternative to emancipation, justifying the removal of a group of people accounted inferior while avoiding a direct confrontation with the institution of slavery and the large-scale manumission of enslaved people.

Instead, colonization exacerbated existing racial tensions, which led to the ACS's demise. Many enslavers and those who benefited from the labor of enslaved people did not want to give up their labor force and advocates for colonization struggled to convince them to participate in the ACS'due south efforts. Enslavers were not interested in emancipation, and few were willing to complimentary the enslaved and provide their transportation to Africa. Those who initially supported the efforts of colonization in the free Black community, similar businessman James Forten, eventually turned confronting the ACS and supported the efforts of abolitionists, similar William Lloyd Garrison, who fought confronting colonization.³⁵ Garrison and others eventually realized that their collaboration with enslavers was just fortifying the institution of slavery. Every bit a upshot, the ACS imparted a legacy that the ii races could never live peacefully side by side. Supporters, both abolitionists and enslavers, agreed that Blackness was junior and required removal "in Lodge to class a more perfect Spousal relationship."³⁶

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Source: https://www.whitehousehistory.org/the-american-colonization-society