In the early 1800s, abolitionists, free blacks, politicians, religious leaders, and even President Thomas Jefferson debated whether sending blacks back to Africa would solve the problem of slavery.
The idea was called the Return to Africa movement. Not everyone agreed. The abolitionist David Walker said, “America is more our country than it is the whites’. We have enriched it with our blood and tears.” Antislavery leader Frederick Douglass felt the same way.
Two free blacks who were in favor of the idea were Paul Cuffe and Edward Wilmont Blyden. They felt blacks could only be truly free living in their homeland. In 1815, Cuffe took thirty-eight free blacks to Sierra Leone, in West Africa, to settle them there.
In 1816, a group of white abolitionists formed the American Colonization Society (ACS), a private corporation to help blacks return to Africa. Many prominent whites gave large donations.
In the 1850s, antislavery minister Reverend Henry Highland Garnet and black nationalist Martin Delany decided that blacks could progress only by remaining separate from whites. In 1859, Delany led an expedition to Africa to investigate the possibilities of setting up colonies.
He later published an official report with recommendations for returning blacks to Africa.
Related Posts
-
How many Blacks actually returned to Africa during the abolition of slavery?
On April 25, 1822, a group of black settlers, sponsored by the American Colonization Society, landed at Cape Mesurado in Liberia. By 1839, they had formed a commonwealth and had elected a governor,…
-
Who was Frederick Douglass and How did Frederick Douglass contribute to the abolition of slavery in America?
Frederick Douglass (1817-1895), born a slave in Maryland, escaped to New York at the age of twenty-one. He educated himself and became the greatest anti-slavery speaker of his time. In his speeches, he…
-
Why Is South Africa the Richest Country In Africa and How Much Gold Does South Africa Export?
Today, South Africa is the most industrialized country on the continent. It grew rich because Dutch colonists discovered gold and diamonds there in the late 1800s. South Africa still supplies about one third…
-
Who opposed slavery in the 1700s and Did anyone protest slavery in early America?
Slavery was always controversial. Antonio Montesino and Bartolome de las Casas, sixteenth-century Spanish missionaries in North America, were critical of slavery. In the seventeenth century, English and American Quakers opposed slavery and the…
-
Where Are the Atlas Mountains Located In Africa and Which Bear Was Once Native to Africa?
The Atlas mountain range is Africa's longest, extending from Morocco to Tunisia in northern Africa. The Atlas ranges separate the Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines from the Sahara Desert. The chain is part of…
-
Why Are There So Many Wars Between and Within Countries In Africa and When Did Europe Control Africa?
Africa is home to more than 800 ethnic groups, each of which has its own language, beliefs, and traditions. All of these groups lived in Africa long before Europeans founded colonies there in…
