American Colonization Society

E37773

The American Colonization Society was a 19th-century organization that promoted and organized the migration of free African Americans to Africa, leading to the founding of Liberia.


Statements (50)
Predicate Object
instanceOf colonization society
historical organization
nonprofit organization
alternateName American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Colour of the United States
archivesAt Library of Congress
Princeton Theological Seminary
country United States of America
dissolved circa 1964
late 19th century
fieldOfWork African American history
Liberian history
colonization
emigration
foundedBy Bushrod Washington
Charles Fenton Mercer
Elias B. Caldwell NERFINISHED
Francis Scott Key
Henry Clay
Robert Finley
hasEffect creation of Americo-Liberian elite
resettlement of thousands of African Americans in Liberia
hasPart Maryland State Colonization Society
New York Colonization Society
Pennsylvania Colonization Society
Virginia Colonization Society
headquartersLocation Washington, D.C.
inception 1816
December 1816
influenced Constitution of Liberia
political structure of Liberia
influencedBy gradual emancipation ideas
racist beliefs about black–white coexistence
locationOfFormation Washington, D.C.
mainTerritoryOfActivity Liberia
United States of America
West Africa
movement colonization movement
namedAfter colonization of free blacks
notableWork founding of Liberia
opposedBy Frederick Douglass
William Lloyd Garrison
abolitionists
purpose establish a colony for African Americans in West Africa
promote migration of free African Americans to Africa
religionAssociated Protestantism
significantEvent establishment of colony at Cape Mesurado
founding of Monrovia
supportedBy some free African Americans
some slaveholders
some white politicians


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