Negro Colonization—State and National

The idea of colonization seems to have originated with Mr. Jefferson, who, in 1777, submitted a plan to a committee of the General Assembly of Virginia.

In 1787, Dr. William Thornton published an address to the free negroes of the whole country offering to lead them in person back to Africa.

In December, 1800, the General Assembly passed a resolution requesting the Governor to communicate with the President of the United States with the view of purchasing lands beyond the limits of Virginia for colonization purposes. A considerable correspondence ensued between Mr. Monroe, the Governor, and Mr. Jefferson, the President.

Nothing practical, however, resulted from these negotiations, though on the 27th of December, 1804, Mr. Jefferson wrote Governor Page: "I beg you to be assured that, having the object of the House of Delegates sincerely at heart, I will keep it under my constant attention, and omit no occasion which may occur of giving it effect."^[80]

EARLY SCHEMES OF COLONIZATION

In January, 1805, the Legislature passed another resolution requesting Virginia's representatives in Congress to use every effort to secure a portion of the territory of Louisiana for the colonization "of such people of color as have been or shall be emancipated in Virginia."

The difficulties with France and England at this time prevented further prosecution of the subject, but, after the termination of the war between the United States and England, a resolution was passed by the General Assembly of Virginia, in December, 1816, requesting the Governor to correspond with the President with a view of acquiring upon the coast of Africa, or at some point in the United States, an asylum "for such persons of color as are now free and desire the same," or "that may hereafter be emancipated in Virginia."

AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY

About the time of this action of the Virginia Legislature there assembled at Washington on the 21st of December 1816, a body of prominent citizens from various states, who effected a tentative organization, from which resulted the American Colonization Society. Over this meeting Henry Clay presided, and among the notable persons present were Daniel Webster, Bushrod Washington and John Randolph of Roanoke. The Rev. Robert Finley, of New Jersey, and Mr. E. B. Caldwell, at that time Clerk of the Supreme Court at Washington, were especially active in bringing about the assemblage. Charles Fenton Mercer, of Virginia, and Francis Scott Key, of Maryland, were also among the most zealous friends of the enterprise. In addition to Randolph and Washington, Bishop William Meade, Rev. William H. Wilmer, John Taylor, Edmund I. Lee and other Virginians were also present. Mr. Clay has left upon record that "the original conception of the project is to be traced to a date long anterior," to the meeting and that "the State of Virginia, always prominent in works of benevolence, prior to the formation of the American Colonization Society ... had expressed her approbation of the plan of colonization."^[81]

On the first of January, 1817, the permanent organization of the society was effected by the selection of Mr. Justice Bushrod Washington, of Virginia, as President, a position which he held for thirteen years. Judge Washington was succeeded by Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, James Madison, Henry Clay and John H. B. Latrobe, the last named holding office until after the Civil War.

FOUNDING OF COLONY OF LIBERIA

The Society having been organized, immediate steps were taken to acquire land upon the coast of Africa upon which to establish the colony. For this purpose Samuel J. Mills, so well known and venerated for his missionary labors, and Ebenezer Burgess were sent to Africa, the money to defray their expenses being raised by Charles Fenton Mercer and Bishop Meade, of Virginia.^[82] The report of these commissioners established the practicability of securing the necessary land on the coast of Africa and establishing the emigrants in their new home. The Society, however, was without sufficient means for the successful initiation of its great work and possessed no relation to the government, state or National. By a fortuitous train of circumstances and the zeal of certain of its members, among whom Virginians bore an active part, all of these objects were in a measure attained.

Under the terms of the Federal statute prohibiting the foreign slave trade it was provided that any slave whose importation was attempted in violation of the act should be seized by the authorities of the state where the importation occurred, and disposed of at its pleasure. The State of Georgia had, accordingly, acquired possession of a number of imported negroes and had advertised them for sale at Milledgeville, May 4, 1819. Such an event and such a policy would have defeated the statute, one of whose objects was to prevent the increase of the slave population. Learning of these facts, Bishop Meade, of Virginia, was sent as the representative of the Colonization Society, to Georgia, where he secured the release of the negroes advertised to be sold, upon condition that the Society would reimburse the state for the costs incurred in their maintenance.^[83] George Washington Parke Custis, of Virginia, offered an island near Cape Charles, Virginia, as a place of refuge until they could be transported to Africa.^[84] Knowledge of the foregoing facts induced Charles Fenton Mercer and John Floyd, of Virginia, to present to Congress, of which they were members, a bill which became a law in 1819, whereby all negroes imported since the passage of the act should be returned to their own country, appointing agents upon the coast of Africa to receive them; and appropriating $100,000.00 to carry this law into effect. President Monroe was zealous in enforcing the provisions of this law, and acted in cordial co-operation with the Colonization Society to effectuate its purposes. Under the provisions of the act, territory was acquired upon the coast of Africa, and there the colony of Liberia was established. In 1824, in recognition of Mr. Monroe's services, the inhabitants of the colony named their capital Monrovia.

VIRGINIA'S EFFORTS AT COLONIZATION

In the great work of the American Colonization Society, the leading people of Virginia took a most active and sympathetic interest. This was evinced in the organization of Auxiliary Societies at Richmond, Norfolk, Fredericksburg, Petersburg, Alexandria, Lynchburg, Wheeling, Charlestown, Shepherdstown, Hampton and Harper's Ferry and in the Counties of Isle of Wight, Sussex, Albemarle, King William, Dinwiddie, Amherst, Berkeley, Nansemond, Buckingham, Nelson, Fluvanna, Frederick, Augusta, Kanawha, Powhatan, Loudoun, Rockingham, Mecklenburg, Campbell, and others. The officials of these Societies numbered many of the most prominent men of Virginia; John Marshall, then Chief Justice of the United States, was President of the Richmond branch.

The Virginia Auxiliary Societies collected money by private subscription, and facilitated in every way the transportation of such free negroes as desired to emigrate. In 1826, upon the petition of the Societies, the Legislature of Virginia made its first appropriation to assist in their work. In addition to those in Virginia, Auxiliary Societies were organized in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Kentucky.

In 1828 the Colonization Society of Virginia was established and thereafter Virginians directed their energies largely through this Virginia organization. John Marshall was elected President of the Virginia Society, and James Madison, James Monroe, John Tyler and William H. Broadnax, were among its Vice-Presidents.

By an act passed in 1850 the General Assembly of Virginia appropriated the sum of $30,000.00 per annum for five years for the transportation and sustenance of free negroes who desired to emigrate. Certain qualifications of the measure limited its effectiveness, and in 1853, the Virginia Colonization Society secured its repeal and the enactment of a new law appropriating $30,000.00 per annum for five years, with much more liberal provisions as to the method of its expenditure. Private benevolence supplemented the state. The reports of the Society show that during the years 1850-51-52 private contributions from the people of Virginia aggregated over $21,000.00.^[85]

The work of the Society was endorsed by the churches and more and more it assumed the character of a Christian enterprise. It was commended because it brought relief to Virginia, blessings to the ex-slaves, greater hope of freedom to those still in bondage, and carried Christianity and civilization to Africa. Among the first of many white men who gave their lives to the cause of colonization was Samuel J. Mills, who died at sea on his way home from Africa. Mills was the leader in the band of students at Williams College, Massachusetts, so well known for their missionary zeal and labours, and hence has a double claim upon our gratitude.

ABOLITIONISTS AND PRO-SLAVERY MEN

The problems and difficulties of colonization, admittedly great, were seriously augmented by the active opposition of the extreme pro-slavery men at the South and the Abolitionists at the North. Each of these two antagonistic forces strenuously opposed the work of colonization, the first because it facilitated eventual emancipation, the second, among other reasons, because it rendered conditions more tolerable and thus postponed the day of the universal and immediate abolition of slavery.

In addition to the colonizations made through the aid of the colonization societies, many Virginia slaveholders emancipated their slaves and at their own expense colonized them in some of the free states. A few instances will illustrate the custom and the difficulties often encountered by these emancipators and their ex-slaves.

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[80]	Virginian History of African Colonization, Slaughter, pp. 1-6.

[81]	The African Repository and Colonial Journal—Vol. VI, No. 1, p. 13.

[82]	Liberia Bulletin. No. 16—February, 1900, p. 21.

[83]	Memoir of Bishop Meade, Johns, 1867, p. 120.

[84]	History of United States, McMaster, Vol. IV, p. 65.

[85]	Virginian History of African Colonization, Slaughter, p. 100.