American Colonial Societies
In the 19th century, several colonization societies emerged in the United States to encourage the "return" of blacks to Africa . The theologian Samuel Hopkins from Newport seems to have invented the idea of founding colonies for former black slaves in Africa as early as 1770 . Even Thomas Jefferson , one of the Founding Fathers of the United States , called for the establishment of colonies of black Americans far away from his home state of Virginia , and thus was the most important early advocate of the idea of establishment of colonies for former black slaves.
Drives for founding companies
Two completely opposing groups of white citizens supported these societies. On the one hand philanthropists and missionaries who wanted to free the African slaves, who they wanted to then enable the “return” to Africa for their own good (although the greater part of the slave population in the USA was born in America). The idea was also advocated by racists who could not imagine living together with free black citizens.
Concrete effects
The American societies were able to put their goals into practice to a limited extent on the coasts of what would later become the state of Liberia , while similar efforts in Great Britain led to the establishment of colony in Sierra Leone . The practical impact on the history and population composition of these states has been significant, while the actual returns that have taken place have been negligible in terms of the US population.
List of colonization societies
- Sierra Leone Company
- Maryland State Colonization Society
- African Colonization Society (1800–1816), founded in Virginia state, probably Richmond
- American Colonization Society (1817–?) Was affiliated with the National Colonization Society. Samuel John Mills (1783-1818) was the founder, along with Robert Finley
- International Migration Society (IMS) (1894–1899), founded at the instigation of Henry McNeil Turner . IMS successfully brought three ships with African Americans to Liberia.
- Liberia Exodus Joint Stock Steamship Company (1877–1880) sent a ship the Azor to Liberia at the behest of Martin Delany .
- The National Colonization Society of America , (founded in Washington, DC , December 1816) The most successful of the societies, became the nationwide organization in which many well-known Americans were involved. See: American Colonization Society
- New York Colonization Society (? -?) Was active in Liberia in the 1890s.
- United Trans-Atlantic Society (1885–1887) was founded in Kansas City at the instigation of Benjamin "Pap" Singleton .
literature
- Henry Wilson : The History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America. Volume 1. Boston 1875
- Alexander: A History of Colonization on the Western Coast of Africa. Philadelphia 1846.
- William Lloyd Garrison : Thoughts on Colonization. Boston 1832.
- James G. Birney : Letter on Colonization. New York 1834.
- William Jay (son of John Jay ): An Inquiry into the Character and Tendency of the American Colonization and Antislavery Societies. New York 1834.
- Floyd J. Miller: The Search for a Black Nationality: Black Colonization and Emigration, 1787–1863. University of Illinois Press, Urbana 1975.
- Nina Mjagkij (Ed.): Organizing Black America: An Encyclopedia of African American Associations. Garland Publishing, New York 2001, ISBN 0-8153-2309-3 .
- Jane H. Pease, William H. Pease: They Who Would Be Free: Blacks' Search for Freedom, 1830-1861. Atheneum, New York 1974.
- Edwin S. Redkey: Black Exodus: Black Nationalist and Back-to-Africa Movements, 1890-1910. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT 1969.
