Liberia 1825

 

Indiana Palladium / Lawrenceburg August 5, 1825

The African Colony -- If this Colony shall prosper, as it probably will, though it is too distant to have much effect in reducing the number of free colored population in the United States, which was the original design of it, it may have a happy effect on the neighboring nations or tribes in that quarter of the world, and become highly valuable to us on account of the commerce which it will afford.

Coffee, cotton and rice grow here as natives, and may be cultivated to any extent. With these rich staples for exports, and a soil capable of producing abundant supplies of grain, what mighty results may be hoped for, when this colony of civilized blacks shall acquire power to command the adjacent inhabitants, forbid the slave trade and enter into treaties with the European and American nations? 

All these things may happen in less than fifty years, and possibly at an earlier period, and the hope of spreading light trough this dark land, should make us zealous for the success of the project, notwithstanding it may not materially affect he design for which the colony was established. 

The present colonists are healthy and appear to be prosperous -- and will be joined by others as fast, perhaps as the general good will admit of. A very rapid accession of population cannot be otherwise les injurious, as destructive of these fruits which experience has reared for the safety of persons and property.

NOTES: The colony was known as Liberia on the western coast of Africa. The proposal was accepted by most American politicians from 1816 forward until the Civil War that African Americans should want to return to their native homeland. Generally, black leaders opposed the plan, as did abolitionists and Southern slaveowners, who feared the loss of cheap labor.

Most states set up funds to help these people go back to Africa and in a couple of cases, actually mandated they leave the state in an effort to speed up the process.

Indiana, in 1851, wrote into its new Constitution that black people were prohibited from living or working in the state. The impact was theoretical; the law was repealed in 1866. 

Liberia still exists with some of its history rooted in American custom, but the country suffered a civil war in the last part of the 20th century. It's capital city is Monrovia, after James Monroe, the president when the plan to colonize the country was advanced.

A few white people were a part of this immigration, being either speculators or criminals in some cases.

As early as 1824, a similar program emerged to send some black people to the island of Haiti.

Colonization groups were founded essentially on racist agendas with no legitimate interest in helping freed slaves build a permanent government. Only a few thousand people actually took part in the colonization of Liberia and Haiti.

William Lloyd Garrison was author of Thoughts on African Colonization (1832), in which he proclaimed the society a fraud. According to Garrison and his many followers, the society was not a solution to the problem of American slavery — it actually was helping, and was intended to help, to preserve it.