author
American Colonization Society
Founded in 1816, this American organization pushed a deeply contested idea: sending free Black Americans and formerly enslaved people to West Africa. Its efforts helped establish Liberia, while also becoming a flashpoint in the long struggle over slavery, race, and citizenship in the United States.
1 Audiobook
Condition of the American Colored Population, and of the Colony at Liberia
by American Colonization Society
About the author
The American Colonization Society was founded in Washington, D.C., in 1816. Organized by Presbyterian minister Robert Finley and supported by a mix of politicians, clergy, and reformers, it promoted the migration of free Black Americans and emancipated enslaved people to West Africa.
The society helped create a colony that eventually became Liberia. Supporters described colonization as a solution to slavery and racial conflict, but many free Black Americans strongly opposed the plan, arguing that the United States was their home and that colonization dodged the real issue of equal rights.
Because of that tension, the American Colonization Society remains a revealing and uncomfortable part of American history. It sits at the intersection of antislavery activism, white paternalism, racism, emigration, and nation-building in West Africa.