Explorers & agents · founded 1816
The American Colonization Society
The Washington society whose agents purchased Cape Mesurado, governed the colony until 1847, and named it Liberia.
Biography
Founded in December 1816 by Robert Finley, Charles Fenton Mercer, Bushrod Washington and others, the Society joined two incompatible constituencies: evangelicals who saw colonisation as emancipation's instrument, and slaveholders who saw it as a way to remove free black people from the United States.
It bought the Cape in 1821, appointed the colony's white agents, and controlled its finances and land grants until the settlers declared independence in 1847. It was resisted from the beginning by free black Americans — most forcefully at the Philadelphia meeting of January 1817.
Historical significance
The institutional author of the 1822 settlement, and the body whose land theory collided with coastal African law.
Timeline
- Dec 1816Society founded in Washington
- Jan 1817Philadelphia mass meeting of free black Americans rejects colonisation
- Dec 1821Its agents obtain the Cape Mesurado cession
- 1847Settlers declare independence; Society relinquishes government
Related entries
References
- Staudenraus, P. J. (1961). The African Colonization Movement, 1816–1865.
- Huberich, Charles Henry (1947). The Political and Legislative History of Liberia.
Suggested reading
- Staudenraus (1961).