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Overview
In the early 1800s a major social movement, the American Colonization Society, secured marked support in the United States. First popular in the 1820s and early 1830s, the movement waned in the late 1830s and 40s. It was not until the 1850s, when slavery increasingly polarized the nation, that the movement regained strength. Despite the endorsement of prominent humanitarians and sympathetic politicians in both the North and South, the colonization movement faltered in its initial goal of colonizing free blacks and its later efforts to encourage voluntary and gradual emancipation. This work explores the Society's organization, purpose, growth, and the various factors that led to its ultimate failure in addressing the existence of slavery in a society still experimenting with democracy.
Synopsis
In the early 1800s a major social movement, the American Colonization Society, secured marked support in the United States. Despite the endorsement of prominent humanitarians and sympathetic politicians in both the North and South, the colonization movement faltered in its initial goal of colonizing free blacks and its later efforts to encourage voluntary and gradual emancipation. This work explores the Society's organization, purpose, growth, and the various factors that led to its ultimate failure.
Editorials
Midwest Book Review
A chronicle of the Society's organization, purpose, growth, and the factors that led to its ultimate failure in dealing with the existence of slavery in a would-be democracy, The American Colonization Society is a scholarly, well-researched, and welcome addition to the American History and black studies reference shelves.Itinerario
Yarema's pamphlet on the ACS centralizes the colonization debate in deeply-rooted ideas about whether or not the natin could honestly reconcile a commitment to liberty, freedom, and democracy with the enslavement of blacks. The formation of the ACS represents for Yarema a failed attempt to resolve the deep contradiction in the benevolent and paternal objectives of the organization and its efforts to encourage black settlement in Liberia.— Stephen G. Hall, Ohio State University