American Colonization Society

The American Colonization Society was founded in the United States in 1816. It brought together a wide range of supporters, including people who opposed slavery, people who wanted to remove free Black people from American society, and prominent public figures such as Henry Clay, Francis Scott Key, and Bushrod Washington. From the start, the group's goals were debated, because its backers did not all share the same reasons for supporting colonization.

The society worked to send free Black Americans and emancipated people to the west coast of Africa. In the 1820s it helped establish a colony that became Liberia, and for years it remained closely involved in its development. Thousands of people emigrated through the society's efforts, but many Black leaders and abolitionists strongly opposed the project, arguing that Black Americans were entitled to full citizenship in the United States rather than removal from it.

Today, the American Colonization Society is remembered as a major force in 19th-century American history and as a symbol of the era's sharp conflicts over slavery, race, and belonging. Its legacy is complicated: it helped shape Liberia's beginnings, but it also reflected the prejudice and exclusion that free Black people faced in the United States.