Date of Award

5-1958

Degree Type

Master's Essay - Restricted

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

History

First Advisor

Frank Klement

Abstract

In the early 1820's there were few platforms upon which representative men from the Northeast, the West and the upper South could stand and discuss dispassionately the negro problem. But upon the platform of colonization they could, and did, stand. The. American Colonization Society, founded in 1817 for the purpose of colonizing the free people of color of the United States in some place, preferably Africa, appealed to men in every walk of life and from almost every section of the country. Listed on its membership and contributory rolls can be found side by side Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and William Crawford of Georgia; Andrew Jackson, slaveholder and Gerrit Smith, emancipator - to cite but a few.

That a society could harmoniously promote emancipation and strengthen the bonds of slavery at the same time depended upon its ability to gain the support of the whole American nation. The American Colonization Society appealed to the North as a missionary enterprise that would be helpful to all who would wish to emancipate their slaves. It was also a missionary enterprise to the South in that it would remove the free Negroes who were believed injurious to slave property. Herein lies the seedlings of internal conflict within the Society which perforce effected its wakening and ultimate downfall.

The limitations of both time and space that are necessarily imposed upon one who undertakes a study of this character have made it impracticable to present here a complete history of the American Colonization Society. That history covers 100 years; for the Society still enjoyed existence in the early 1900's, although since the Civil War its influence was almost illusory.

No one acquainted with the Society's history after 1839 when its control was exclusively under the direction of the North Middle and Northeastern states can have the slightest doubt as to its definite antislavery tendencies. It has been the aim of this writer to set forth the aims and accomplishments of the American Colonization Society prior to that time by investigating fully this most significant period of its history.

Comments

Submitted in partial fulfillment of Plan B, Master of Arts requirement in History

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