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Education or Emigration: The Schism Within the African Colonization Movement, 1865–1875

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Eli Seifman
Eli Seifman*
Affiliation:
State University of New York, Stony Brook
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Extract

Historically, the status of the Negro has presented our nation with complex and challenging problems. Alexis de Tocqueville observed:

The Negroes may long remain slaves without complaining; but if they are once raised to the level of free men, they will soon revolt at being deprived of almost all their civil rights; and as they cannot become the equals of the whites, they will speedily show themselves as enemies.

Type
The Negro and Education III
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , Spring 1967 , pp. 36 - 57
Copyright
Copyright © 1967 History of Education Quarterly 

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References

Notes

1. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, ed. Phillips Bradley, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1945), I, 394.Google Scholar

2. Walter L. Fleming, “Historic Attempts to Solve the Race Problem in America by Deportation,” The Journal of Negro History, IV (January 1910), 197-213.Google Scholar

3. Henry Noble Sherwood, “Early Negro Deportation Projects,” The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, II (March 1916), 484-508.Google Scholar

4. Ibid., p. 484.Google Scholar

5. Fleming, op. cit.; Sherwood, op. cit. Another valuable source that deals, at least in part, with early Negro deportation proposals is Brainerd Dyer, “The Persistence of the Idea of Negro Colonization,” The Pacific Historical Review, XII (March 1943), 53-65.Google Scholar

6. Archibald Alexander, A History of Colonization on the Western Coast of Africa (Philadelphia: W. S. Martien, 1846), pp. 65-75.Google Scholar

7. P. J. Staudenraus, The African Colonization Movement, 1816–1865 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1961), pp. 2-11.Google Scholar

8. Sherwood, op. cit., pp. 491-92.Google Scholar

9. Staudenraus, op. cit., p. 5.Google Scholar

10. Ibid., p. 6.Google Scholar

11. Ibid. Google Scholar

12. Sherwood, op. cit., pp. 502-3.Google Scholar

13. Francis Arthur Utting, The Story of Sierra Leone (London: Longmans, Green and Company, 1931), pp. 80-108; Staudenraus, op. cit., pp. 5-9.Google Scholar

14. Sometimes spelled Cuffee, Cuffey, or Cuff. Henry Noble Sherwood, “Paul Cuffe,” The Journal of Negro History, VIII (April 1923), 153.Google Scholar

15. Ibid., p. 170.Google Scholar

16. Ibid., pp. 153–229; Sherwood, “Paul Cuffe and His Contribution to the American Colonization Society,” Proceedings of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association for the Years 1912–1913, VI, 370-402.Google Scholar

17. These included the American Bible Society, the American Sunday School Union, the American Tract Society, the American Peace Society, the American Temperance Union, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the American Education Society, the American Home Missionary Society, the American Seaman's Friend Society, and the American Society for Meliorating the Condition of the Jews. Staudenraus, op. cit., p. 12.Google Scholar

18. Ibid., p. 13.Google Scholar

19. Ibid., pp. 12–15.Google Scholar

20. Early Lee Fox, The American Colonization Society, 1817–1840 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1919), p. 48.Google Scholar

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22. Ibid., p. 214.Google Scholar

23. Staudenraus, op. cit., p. 17.Google Scholar

24. Alexander, op. cit., p. 89.Google Scholar

25. Ibid. Google Scholar

26. Included among the founders of the American Colonization Society were distinguished congressmen, senators, clergymen, and prominent citizens of the District of Columbia. Bushrod Washington, Supreme Court Justice and Squire of Mount Vernon, was elected President of the Society. The thirteen Vice Presidents included William H. Crawford of Georgia; Henry Clay of Kentucky; William Phillips of Massachusetts; Col. Henry Rutgers of New York; John E. Howard, Samuel Smith, and John C. Herbert of Maryland; John Taylor of Virginia; Gen. Andrew Jackson of Tennessee; Robert Ralston and Richard Rush of Pennsylvania; Gen. John Mason of the District of Columbia; and Rev. Robert Finley of New Jersey. W. G. D. Worthington was elected Recording Secretary and David English, Treasurer. The real responsibilities went to the Board of Managers and the Executive Secretary. Elected as “managers” were Francis Scott Key, Walter Jones, John Laird, Rev. Dr. James Laurie, Edmund J. Lee, Rev. Stephen B. Balch, James H. Blake, John Peter, Rev. Obadiah B. Brown, William Thornton, Jacob Hoffman, and Henry Carroll. Elias B. Caldwell, Finley's brother-in-law and Clerk of the United States Supreme Court, was elected Secretary. Staudenraus, op. cit., p. 30.Google Scholar

27. Ibid., pp. 23–35, 69-81.Google Scholar

28. The American Colonization Society, Forty-Ninth Annual Report of the American Colonization Society, with the Proceedings of the Annual Meeting and of the Board of Directors, January 16, 1866 (Washington, D.C.: The American Colonization Society, 1866), p. 54; The American Colonization Society, Fifty-Second Annual Report of the American Colonization Society, with Proceedings of the Annual Meeting and of the Board of Directors, January 19 and 20, 1869 (Washington, D.C.: The American Colonization Society, 1869), inside back cover; Liberia Bulletin, No. 16 (February 1900), p. 28.Google Scholar

29. The New-York State Colonization Society, Statement of the New-York State Colonization Society as to Its Differences with the American Colonization Society, March 1870 (New York: S. W. Green, 1870), p. 54.Google Scholar

30. The American Colonization Society, Fifty-Second Annual Report of the American Colonization Society, with Proceedings of the Annual Meeting and of the Board of Directors, op. cit.; Liberia Bulletin, op. cit., p. 28.Google Scholar

31. The New-York State Colonization Society, op. cit., p. 14.Google Scholar

32. Ibid., pp. 14–15, 26-29.Google Scholar

33. The New-York State Colonization Society, Circular (New York: The New-York State Colonization Society, April 30, 1870), p. 1.Google Scholar

34. Ibid. Google Scholar

35. Ibid. Google Scholar

36. Ibid. Google Scholar

37. Ibid., pp. 1–3, 7-8.Google Scholar

38. Ibid., p. 1.Google Scholar

39. The New-York State Colonization Society, Circular, op. cit., n.d. [October 12, 1869], p. 3.Google Scholar

40. Ibid. Google Scholar

41. The New-York State Colonization Society, Statement of the New-York State Colonization Society as to Its Differences with the American Colonization Society, op. cit., p. 15.Google Scholar

42. The New-York State Colonization Society, Circular, op. cit., n.d. [Octtober 12, 1869], p. 5Google Scholar

43. The New-York State Colonization Society, Statement of the New-York State Colonization Society as to Its Differences with the American Colnization Sociey, op. cit., pp. 14-15, 24-29; The New-York State Colonization Society, Circular, op. cit., April 30, 1870, pp. 1-8; The New-York State Colonization Society, Synopsis of the Effort Made in Behalf of the American Colonization Society, to Get Control of the Field of the New York Colonization Society, in Violation of the Pledge of Non-Inteference (New York: S. W. Green, 1870), pp. 11-12.Google Scholar

44. The New-York State Colonization Society, Circular, op. cit., April 30, 1870, p. 3.Google Scholar

45. Ibid., p. 2.Google Scholar

46. Ibid. Google Scholar

47. Ibid., pp. 1–3, 7-8.Google Scholar

48. The New-York State Colonization Society, Statement of the New-York State Colonization Society as to Its Differences with the American Colonization Society, op. cit., pp. 21-22; The New York Colonization Society, Exposition of the Errors of the New-York State Colonization Society in Its Late Attacks on the American Colonization Society (New York: MacDonald & Palmer, 1870), pp. 23-25; The American Colonization Society, Fifty-First Annual Report of the American Colonization Society, with the Proceedings of the Annual Meeting and of the Board of Directors, January 21, 22, and 23, 1868 (Washington, D.C.: The American Colonization Society, 1868), pp. 1-5; The African Repository, XLIV (October 1868), 316.Google Scholar

49. The African Repository, XLIV (April 1868), 84.Google Scholar

50. John Orcutt, Letter of John Orcutt, Secretary, American Colonization Society, New York City, July 9th, 1869, to Rev. J. P. Durbin, Secretary M.E. Mis. Soc. [Methodist Episcopal Mission Society] (New York: The American Colonization Society, 1869), p. 2.Google Scholar

51. Ibid. Google Scholar

52. Ibid., pp. 1–4; [John B. Pinney], Letter from a Member of Both the American and New-York State Colonization Societies, to the Rev. Dr. Durbin, 1869 (New York: The New-York State Colonization Society, 1869), pp. 1-3.Google Scholar

53. The New-York State Colonization Society, Statement of the New-York State Colonization Society, as to Its Differences with the American Colonization Society, op. cit., p. 24.Google Scholar

54. The New York Colonization Society, Exposition of the Errors of the New-York State Colonization Society, in Its Late Attacks on the American Colonization Society, op. cit., p. 24.Google Scholar

55. The New-York State Colonization Society, Statement of the New-York State Colonization Society as to Its Differences with the American Colonization Society, op. cit., p. 7.Google Scholar

56. Ibid., p. 15.Google Scholar

57. The New-York State Colonization Society, Twenty-Third Annual Report of the New-York State Colonization Society, May, 1855 (New York: John A. Gray, 1855), p. 19.Google Scholar

58. The African Repository, op. cit., XV (January 1839), 24.Google Scholar

59. The New York Colonization Society, African Colonization Revived (New York: The New York Colonization Society, 1869), p. 1.Google Scholar

60. Ibid., p. 2.Google Scholar

61. Ibid., p. 3.Google Scholar

62. Ibid., p. 6.Google Scholar

63. The New-York State Colonization Society, Letter from the Board of Control, December 29, 1869, to Dear Sir: (New York: The New-York State Colonization Society, 1869).Google Scholar

64. The African Repository, op. cit., XLIV (April 1870), 120-21.Google Scholar

65. The New York Colonization Society, Exposition of the Errors of the New-York State Colonization Society in Its Late Attacks on the American Colonization Society, op. cit., pp. 4-7, 33; The New York Colonization Society, Statement of the New York Colonization Society, Auxiliary to the American Colonization Society at Washington, D.C., and Other Documents (New York: MacDonald & Palmer, 1870), pp. 4-7; The New-York State Colonization Society, Synopsis of the Effort Made in Behalf of the American Colonization Society, to Get Control of the Field of the New-York State Colonization Society, in Violation of the Pledge of Non-interference, op. cit., p. 14; The New-York State Colonization Society, Statement of the New-York State Colonization Society as to Its Differences with the American Colonization Society, op. cit., pp. 13-14.Google Scholar

66. The New York Colonization Society, Exposition of the Errors of the New-York State Colonization Society in Its Late Attacks on the American Colonization Society, op. cit. Google Scholar

67. The New-York State Colonization Society, Statement of the New-York State Colonization Society as to Its Differences with the American Colonization Society, op. cit. Google Scholar

68. The New-York State Colonization Society, Synopsis of the Effort Made in Behalf of the American Colonization Society, to Get Control of the Field of the New-York State Colonization Society, in Violation of the Pledge of Non-interference, op. cit. Google Scholar

69. The New-York State Colonization Society, Statement of the New-York State Colonization Society as to Its Differences with the American Colonization Society, op. cit., pp. 1-2. Google Scholar

70. The New York Colonization Society, Exposition of the Errors of the New-York State Colonization Society in Its Late Attacks on the American Colonization Society, op. cit., p. 35.Google Scholar

71. The African Repository, op. cit., XLVIII (March 1872), 75.Google Scholar

72. Letter of the Rev. Joseph Tracy, April 9, 1867, to the Rev. John Orcutt, cited in the Rev. Joseph Tracy, A Letter by Rev. Joseph Tracy, D.D., Containing Memoranda Concerning the Late Appeal of the Executive Committee of the New-York State Colonization Society to the Friends of African Colonization (New York: MacDonald & Palmer, 1870), p. 5.Google Scholar

73. The African Repository, op. cit., LV (April 1879), 54-55.Google Scholar

74. Ibid., LIX (April 1883), p. 35.Google Scholar

75. The American Colonization Society, Eighty-Seventh Annual Report of the American Colonization Society, with the Minutes of the Annual Meeting and of the Board of Directors (January 1905) p. 11.Google Scholar

76. The American Colonization Society, Eighty-Eighth Annual Report of the American Colonization Society, with the Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Board of Directors, January 17, 1905 (Washington, D.C.: The American Colonization Society, 1905), p. 11.Google Scholar

77. The American Colonization Society Papers [uncatalogued acquisition received by the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, on August 27, 1964, Accession Number 12,986], passim. Google Scholar

78. Ibid., MS Joshua Evans, Jr., Secretary-Treasurer [of the American Colonization Society], Washington, to Joshua Evans, Jr., Washington, January 3, 1962. [The signature is not that of Evans, and is most likely that of his secretary.]; ibid., MS Dayton M. Harrington, to Philip A. Kolrood, Essex Junction, Vermont, January 16, 1962.Google Scholar

79. The New-York State Colonization Society, Proceedings at the Fortieth Annual Meeting of the New-York State Colonization Society, Held May, 1872 (New York: Baker & Godwin, 1872), pp. 1-12; The New-York State Colonization Society, Proceedings of the Forty-First Annual Meeting of the New-York State Colonization Society, Held May, 1873 (New York: Baker & Godwin, 1873), pp. 1-4; The New-York State Colonization Society, Proceedings at the Forty-Third Annual Meeting of the New-York State Colonization Society, Held May 21st, 1875 (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1875), pp. 1-7; The New-York State Colonization Society, Annual Report of the New-York State Colonization Society for the Year Ending May 1, 1886 (New York: Edward O. Jenkins’ Sons, 1886), pp. 1-12. In order to avoid confusion in citations relating to the New-York State Colonization Society's official publications after 1891, the following explanatory remark is presented: In 1891, the hyphen in “New-York” was omitted from the official title of the state Society. The New York State Colonization Society, Charter, Constitution and By-Laws of the New York State Colonization Society, also Funds Held in Trust and Financial Report, May 1, 1891 (New York: The New York State Colonization Society, 1891), Article 2 of the Constitution, p. 6.Google Scholar

80. The New-York State Colonization Society Papers, “Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the New York State Colonization Society, December 17, 1940,” pp. 8-9 (mimeographed).Google Scholar

81. Ibid., “Constitution of the New York State Colonization Society, December 18, 1931,” p. 1 (mimeographed).Google Scholar

82. Ibid., 1931 to present, passim. Google Scholar