"The Bounds of Habitation": The Geography of the American Colonization Society, 1816-1860.

Abstract

The American Colonization Society (ACS) was founded in 1816, with the mission of transporting African American emigrants from the United States to Africa. This dissertation examines changes in the ideology of the colonizationist movement across both space and time, and concludes that while there was relatively little regional variation among the colonizationist arguments advanced in different sections of the country, the ACS’s goals shifted over time, from an early emphasis on emancipating slaves, to a later focus on free black emigrants. Supporters of colonization were united by a shared vision of “racial geography,” an ideal of global segregation and racially defined citizenship.

A quantitative analysis of the ACS’s regional fundraising data demonstrates that the organization had a national support base; the Society received significant donations from nearly every section of the country. Other research sources include published examples of colonizationist and anti-colonizationist rhetoric, the private correspondence of supporters, fictional representations of the colonization scheme, and records of political debates over the plan. Chronological and geographical comparisons of these sources contribute to a comprehensive account of the ACS as an enduring national institution in the antebellum United States.

The impact of the antebellum colonization movement should be measured not by the small numbers of emigrants enrolled in the scheme, but rather by the ACS’s rhetorical successes. The Colonization Society had powerful friends and powerful enemies, but its ideology and arguments were part of the national discourses of slavery and race for both supporters and detractors. Abolitionists and proslavery writers defined themselves in contrast to colonizationism. The ACS had its own large body of supporters, who believed that racial homogeneity was essential to an effective American democracy. Colonizationism helped to promote racial definitions of citizenship, and encouraged white Americans to exclude African Americans rhetorically and legally from the nation’s body politic.