Mr. Jefferson believed in the colonization of negroes to Africa, and the
substitution of free white labor in their place.
He wrote to John Lynch, of Virginia, in 1811, as follows: "Having long
ago made up my mind on this subject (colonization), I have no hesitation
in saying that I have ever thought it the most desirable measure which
could be adopted, for gradually drawing off this part of our population
most advantageously for themselves as well as for us.
"Going from a country possessing all the useful arts, they might be the
means of transplanting them among the inhabitants of Africa, and
would thus carry back to the country of their origin, the seeds of
civilization, which might render their sojournment and sufferings here a
blessing in the end to that country."
Many other eminent men have shared the same opinion, and not a few
prominent leaders among the Afro-American people.
But it is now an impossibility. The American negro is in America to
stay. The ever pressing problem of his relationship to the white man
involves questions of education, labor, politics and religion, which
will take infinite patience, insight, forbearance and wisdom to settle
justly.