The American Colonization Society

When James Madison signed this membership certificate as president of the American Colonization Society in 1833, the organization’s effort to repatriate America’s free black population to Africa had been underway for over a decade. On December 21, 1816, Robert Finley, a Presbyterian minister from New Jersey, initiated the founding of the society. He laid out his goal of establishing an African colony at a meeting with a cast of powerful, upper class white supporters, including Bushrod Washington (who became the first president), Henry Clay, and Francis Scott Key. The membership rolls expanded rapidly and in the following years the society’s base in Washington, D.C., extended to auxiliary organizations throughout the country.

Concern over the growing population of free African Americans attracted members from seemingly disparate groups to the society. They included both abolitionists and slave owners. Abolitionist members sought the gradual elimination of slavery and wanted to provide free blacks with the opportunity to escape racism and their systematic denial of citizenship rights. Slave owners saw a threat to their livelihood in the growing free black population and believed African colonization would reinforce the institution of slavery. Linking both groups was an entrenched belief that whites and blacks could not coexist equally in the United States.

Congress granted the society $100,000 in 1819 and provided its first ship the following year. The arrival of the Elizabeth in Africa proved disastrous. In a circular letter to the auxiliary societies, E.B. Caldwell, Finley’s brother-in-law and the society’s secretary, revealed the “fatal calamity” of disease that brought death to many and widespread desertion. Couching their determination in the religious rhetoric characteristic of the society, Caldwell stated bluntly: “To these dispensations of the Almighty we bow in submission, and, at the same time, resolve to go on in the path of duty” (GLC05157). Settlement attempts continued, often encountering resistance from native Africans. By 1822, they succeeded in establishing the colony of Liberia on the west coast of Africa. Over the next decade, the American Colonization Society transported over 2,500 African Americans to Liberia.

James Madison, a founding member of the society, assumed its presidency in 1833. Madison subscribed to the theory of diffusion—the idea that the spread of slavery to all territories would bring on its demise. He used the colonization idea to resolve the glaring contradiction between his professed abhorrence of human bondage with his continued participation in chattel slavery. But the society’s mission came under attack from critics on all sides. An 1829 resolution from the pro-slavery Missouri legislature refused to fund the society, fearing later appropriation requests “for the purpose of purchasing slaves, liberating and transporting them to that colony” (GLC00267.046). The society’s gradual approach to emancipation drew fire from the radical abolitionists emerging in the 1830s. In an 1832 critique of colonization, William Lloyd Garrison condemned the society for its failure to acknowledge “the sacred duty of the nation to abolish the system of slavery now, and to recognise the people of color as brethren” (GLC05830).

The society continued its mission, but its support steadily declined from the 1840s on. In 1847, Liberia was declared independent and given a constitution. By 1867, over 13,000 African Americans had emigrated, but the total free black population of over 4 million made the project impractical. The society continued doing missionary and educational work in Liberia until its dissolution in 1913.

Robert Lee, Gilder Lehrman Collection

GLC04675-02, American Colonization Society, 1 December 1833

For more information or to obtain copies, contact Ana Ramirez-Luhrs at reference@gilderlehrman.com or call (212) 787-6616 ext. 209.

Beyan, Amos Jones.  The American Colonization Society and the Creation of the Liberian state. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1991.

Boime, Albert. The Art of Exclusion: Representing Blacks in the Nineteenth Century. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990.

Franklin, John Hope and Alfred A. Moss, Jr. From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1994.

Miller, Floyd J. The Search for a Black Nationality: Black Emigration and Colonization, 1787-1863. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1975.

Rutland, Robert Allen. James Madison: the Founding Father. New York: Macmillan, 1987.

Sanneh, Lamin.  Abolitionists Abroad: American Blacks and the Making of Modern West Africa. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.  

Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961.

Schick, Tom W. “Rhetoric and Reality: Colonization and Afro-American Missionaries in Early Nineteenth Century Liberia,” in Sylvia M. Jacobs, editor, Black Americans and the Missionary Movement in Africa. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1982.