It is always a most interesting part of historic inquiry to search out
the very earliest sources, the first feeble germ of the idea whose
development we are investigating. It is difficult to decide from what
one origin can be traced the continuous development of the idea which
resulted in the birth of Liberia; but toward the close of the last
century there arose a number of projects, widely differing in object and
detail, which bore more or less directly upon it, each of which may be
said to have contributed some special feature to the fully rounded and
developed plan.
The earliest of these sprang from the once notorious hot-bed of
slavery--Newport, R.I. As early as 1773 the Rev. Samuel Hopkins, then
widely known as a theological writer, and responsible for the system
termed Hopkinsianism, conceived the idea of a missionary effort in
Africa, undertaken by natives properly trained in the United States.[2]
This at first did not include the conception of a permanent settlement;
but on consultation with the Rev. Ezra Styles, afterward President of
Yale, it developed into a definite plan for a colony. The scheme proved
popular; it was widely advertised by sermons and circulars both in this
and the mother country; and by 1776 funds had been collected, Negro
students placed under suitable instruction at Princeton, and success
seemed almost assured. The outbreak of the Revolution, however, swept
away all the thought of carrying Hopkins' cherished enterprise into
execution, and after peace was restored his most strenuous efforts
failed to arouse the old interest. Later thinkers, however, found
suggestion and encouragement in his labors.
The colony founded at Sierra Leone by English philanthropists drew in
part its inspiration from Hopkins' idea, and in turn suggested later
American plans. After the celebrated decision of Lord Mansfield in the
Somerset case (1772), many slaves escaped to England, where they
congregated in the dens of London in helpless poverty and misery. James
Ramsay's essay on Slavery soon turned public attention to the Negro, and
Dr. Smeathman's letters suggested quite a scheme of colonization. A
movement in behalf of the oppressed race asserted itself at the
University of Cambridge, in which Clarkson, Wilberforce, Granville Sharp
and others took part. As a result of these efforts some four hundred
Negroes and sixty whites were landed at Sierra Leone in May, 1787.
Disease and disorder were rife, and by 1791 a mere handful survived. The
Sierra Leone Company was then incorporated; some 1,200 colonists from
the Bahamas and Nova Scotia were taken over, and the settlement in spite
of discouraging results was kept up by frequent reinforcements until
1807, when it was made a Government colony and naval station. Its growth
in population and commerce has since steadily increased, and it now
numbers some 60,000 persons chiefly concentrated in the city of
Freetown, and all blacks save one or two hundred.
It may be as well to mention here two other sporadic attempts to lead
colored colonists to Africa. In 1787 the gifted and erratic Dr. Wm.
Thornton proposed himself to become the leader of a body of Rhode Island
and Massachusetts colonists to Western Africa; he appears to have been
in communication with Hopkins on the subject a year later, but the
effort fell through for want of funds. The other is much later. Paul
Cuffee, the son of a well-to-do Massachusetts freedman, had become by
his talents and industry a prosperous merchant and ship-owner.
Stimulated by the colony at Sierra Leone, and longing to secure liberty
to his oppressed race, he determined to transport in his own vessels,
and at his own expense, as many as he could of his colored brethren.
Accordingly, in 1815, he sailed from Boston with about forty, whom he
landed safely at Sierra Leone. He was about to take over on a second
voyage a much larger number, when his benevolent designs were
interrupted by death.
It will be observed that the colonization plans hitherto unfolded had
all been proposed for some missionary or similar benevolent object, and
were to be carried out on a small scale and by private means. It is now
time to consider one proposed from a widely different standpoint. As a
political measure, as a possible remedy for the serious evils arising
from slavery and the contact of races, it is not surprising to find
Thomas Jefferson suggesting a plan of colonization. The evils of slavery
none ever saw more clearly. "The whole commerce between master and
slave," he quaintly says, "is a perpetual exercise of the most
boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and
degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this and learn to
imitate it." And again, "With what execration should the statesman be
loaded, who, permitting one-half the citizens thus to trample on the
rights of the other, transforms these into despots and those into
enemies, destroys the morals of the one part, and the amor patriae of
the other.... I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is
just."[3] Yet his equally clear perception of the evils sure to result
from emancipation immediate and unqualified, makes him look to
colonization as the only remedy. "Why not retain and incorporate the
blacks into the state?" he asks, "Deep rooted prejudices entertained by
the whites, ten thousand recollections by the blacks of the injuries
they have sustained; new provocations; the real distinctions which
nature has made; and many other circumstances, will divide us into
parties and produce convulsions which will probably never end but in the
extermination of the one or the other race." After the lapse of a
century how prophetic these words sound! Jefferson believed then that by
colonization slavery was to be abolished. All slaves born after a
certain date were to be free; these should remain with their parents
till a given age, after which they should be taught at public expense
agriculture and the useful arts. When full-grown they were to be
"colonized to such a place as the circumstances of the time should
render most proper, sending them out with arms, implements of the
household and handicraft arts, pairs of the useful domestic animals,
etc.; to declare them a free and independent people, and extend to them
our alliance and protection till they have acquired strength."
Such in outline was Jefferson's contribution to the colonization idea.
Its influence was unquestionably great: the "Notes on Virginia,"
privately circulated after 1781, and at length published in 1787, went
through eight editions before 1800, and must have been familiar to
nearly all of those concerned in the formation of the Colonization
Society.
Clearer still must the details of Jefferson's project have been in the
minds of the members of the Virginia Legislature in 1800, when, after
the outbreak of a dangerous slave conspiracy in Richmond, they met in
secret session to consult the common security. The resolution which they
reached shows unmistakably Jefferson's influence. With the delicate if
somewhat obscure periphrasis in which legislation concerning the Negro
was traditionally couched, they enacted: "That the Governor be requested
to correspond with the President of the United States on the subject of
purchasing lands without the limits of this State whither persons
obnoxious to the laws or dangerous to the peace of society may be
removed."[4] An interesting correspondence ensued between Monroe, who
was then Governor, and Jefferson. Both regarded the idea as something
far more important than a mere penal colony. Monroe, too, saw in it a
possible remedy for the evils of slavery, and refers to the matter as
"one of great delicacy and importance, involving in a peculiar degree
the future peace, tranquillity, and happiness" of the country. After
much discussion Africa was selected as the only appropriate site, and
approved by another Act of the Legislature. Jefferson lost no time in
attempting to secure land for the colony, but his efforts met with no
success. After a discouraging repulse from Sierra Leone, and the failure
of several half-hearted attempts to obtain a footing elsewhere, the
whole matter was allowed to sink into abeyance. For years a pall of
secrecy concealed the scheme from public knowledge.
In the meantime a new private movement toward colonization was started
at the North. Samuel J. Mills organized at Williams College, in 1808,
for missionary work, an undergraduate society, which was soon
transferred to Andover, and resulted in the establishment of the
American Bible Society and Board of Foreign Missions. But the topic
which engrossed Mills' most enthusiastic attention was the Negro. The
desire was to better his condition by founding a colony between the Ohio
and the Lakes; or later, when this was seen to be unwise, in Africa. On
going to New Jersey to continue his theological studies, Mills succeeded
in interesting the Presbyterian clergy of that State in his project. Of
this body one of the most prominent members was Dr. Robert Finley. Dr.
Finley succeeded in assembling at Princeton the first meeting ever
called to consider the project of sending Negro colonists to Africa.
Although supported by few save members of the seminary, Dr. Finley felt
encouraged to set out for Washington in December, 1816, to attempt the
formation of a colonization society.
Earlier in this same year there had been a sudden awakening of Southern
interest in colonization. Toward the end of February, Gen. Charles
Fenton Mercer accidentally had his attention called to the Secret
Journals of the Legislature for the years 1801-5.[5] He had been for six
years a member of the House of Delegates, in total ignorance of their
existence. He at once investigated and was rewarded with a full
knowledge of the Resolutions and ensuing correspondence between Monroe
and Jefferson. Mercer's enthusiasm was at once aroused, and he
determined to revive the Resolutions at the next meeting of the
Legislature. In the meantime, imputing their previous failure to the
secrecy which had screened them from public view, he brought the whole
project conspicuously into notice. At the next session of the
Legislature, in December, resolutions embodying the substance of the
secret enactments were passed almost unanimously in both houses. Public
attention had been in this way already brought to bear upon the
advantages of Colonization when Finley set on foot the formation of a
society in Washington. The interest already awakened and the
indefatigable efforts of Finley and his friend Col. Charles Marsh, at
length succeeded in convening the assembly to which the Colonization
Society owes its existence. It was a notable gathering. Henry Clay, in
the absence of Bushrod Washington, presided, setting forth in glowing
terms the object and aspirations of the meeting. Finley's
brother-in-law, Elias B. Caldwell was Secretary, and supplied the
leading argument, an elaborate plea, setting forth the expediency of the
project and its practicability in regard to territory, expense, and the
abundance of willing colonists. The wide benevolent objects to be
attained were emphasized. John Randolph of Roanoke, and Robert Wright of
Maryland, dwelt upon the desirability of removing the turbulent
free-negro element and enhancing the value of property in slaves.[6]
Resolutions organizing the Society passed, and committees appointed to
draft a Constitution and present a memorial to Congress. At an adjourned
meeting a week later the constitution was adopted, and on January 1,
1817, officers were elected.