American Colonization Society v/s Abolitionism

Introduction

The Society for the Colonization of the Free People of Color of America or The American Colonization Society in short, was created in the year 1816. It was this organization who supported the slogan that the free African American should be returned to the greater freedom in their native land, Africa.

Abolitionism was a movement to end informal or formal slavery. In the Americas and the Western Europe, it was a movement that had historical significance and aimed to set the slaves free and end Africa slave trading. Even though the European colonists, Spanish, at first would regularly enslave the Black natives, Bartolomé de las Casas the Dominican priest assisted in getting the Spanish Government to pass the first European law that would abolish in 1542, the colonial slavery, weakening Spain by 1545 because of these laws.

Discussion

American Colonization Society

The organization assisted in the foundation of the Liberian colony in for freedmen in 1821-1822.There were numerous founders of this organization including Henry Clay, John Randolph, Richard Bland Lee and Charles Fenton Mercer. It was the Federalist member, Fenton Mercer of the Virginia General Assembly, who procured the narratives of previous legislative arguments on the topic of black colonization, in the aftermath of the rebellion of Gabriel Prosser. Mercer pressurized the state to show approval for the scheme and John Caldwell, his political contacts situated at the capital of the country Washington DC. John communed with Robert Finely the Reverend, a Presbyterian minister, who was also his brother-in-law and was someone who also expressed his support for the idea.

The society officially established itself on 21st December 1816, at the Davis Hotel in Washington DC. Mercer was not able to make it to Washington for the meeting. Even though Randolph was of the opinion that removing the free blacks would tend to materially secure the slave property, the early members majorly consisted of clergy, philanthropists and abolitionists. They were the ones who wished the Black slaves and their generations to be free, thus providing them a means of returning back to Africa. Some of the members were slave-owners; and the Society was not very popular in the planters in the Lower South. This area had rapidly developed on the brunt of slave labor in the 19th century and used have only a few black slaves living in the Upper South. (Alexander E., Pp. 10-15)

The earliest advocate who was fighting for the settlement of Black people in Africa was a wealthy mixed New England activist and ship-owner Paul Cuffee. He soon started garnering tremendous backing from the US Congress members and the Africa American Leaders for an immigration plan. During the years 1811 and 1815-16, he was responsible for the successful financing and voyages to the Sierra Leone which was under the British Rule at that time. There he helped the Black community establish a colony. Even though he died in the year 1917, his works set the bar for the ACS to work on further settlement and plans (Finkelman, Paul, Pp. 101-105).

The coalition of ACS comprised of Quakers and ...