American Colony on the Rio Pongo: Book Details Plan to Send Ex-Slaves Back to Africa

American Colony on the Rio Pongo: Book Details Plan to Send Ex-Slaves Back to Africa
JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports: After 30 years of teaching African history, I am still fascinated by the idealism and innocence expressed by those who supported plans to settle African Americans on the African coast in the 1820s. They knew so little about the continent and the people who lived in it.
Nearly everyone who supported colonization believed that Africa would embrace the return of African Americans. They also believed that slavery in America was wrong and outdated, and they wanted it ended. Some believed that its end would come quickly, while others expected owners to free their slaves gradually.
Many supporters of colonization were convinced that freed blacks would become a perpetual underclass in America and that whites and blacks could not live harmoniously as equals. For some, the solution to the "Negro problem" was to move all African Americans to another place -- any place would do -- where they could rule themselves. Others dreamed of black republics spreading American-style republicanism and civilization, commerce and Christianity on the African continent. Some considered their efforts to be compensation for the damage America had inflicted upon the continent. And others dreamed of economic rewards that would surely come to sponsors, just in case African-American colonies became successful.
There was also a British side to the idea of returning African Americans to Africa. On Africa's west coast, Sierra Leone's governors were convinced that Americans were planning to surround and overwhelm the British colony by flooding the coast with American products and African-American settlers.
 http://www.theroot.com/views/addressing-negro-problem-1820s