E R I N K E I Z U R

AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY (ACS)

FORMATION OF ACS

• 1817: Formed by a group of prominent white male Virginians (Robert Finley)• Members were mainly middle-class whites; some

abolitionists and slave owners• All thought slaves could not be integrated into American

society

“COLONIZATION” OF AFRICAN AMERICANS

• Goal: Relocation of slaves out of America back to Africa• There, the ACS would help them form a new culture/life

• The ACS would buy a slave’s freedom then “colonize” them in Africa• Funding came from private donations and fundraisers

• “You may free the slave in the South, but he is nevertheless a slave North or South. His shackles are only to be cast off by returning to the land of his forefathers.”. –newspaper editorial, West Chester, Pennsylvania, 1854.

POSITIVE EFFECTS

• About 15,000 African Americans were emigrated from America• African Americans

established the nation of Liberia• In 1847 it was declared an

independent state

FAILURES

• Private/public funding wasn’t enough• They “colonized” fewer slaves than were born into the

U.S.

• Many African Americans resisted• There were 3 or more generations removed from Africa

and they had no desire to return to foreign land

• Abolitionists criticized their motives• By 1964- formal dissolution of the ACS