United States History Student Edition

Colonization Society and purchased land on the west coast of Africa for a colony they called Liberia (“place of freedom”). The society raised money to send free African Americans to the colony. The first Liberian settlers arrived in 1822. In 1847, Liberia declared itself an independent republic. The American Colonization Society failed to curb slavery. It helped resettle only about 10,000 African Americans by the mid-1860s. Few African Americans wanted to go to Africa; most wanted to be free in the United States. 7 CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING Explaining What was the purpose of the American Colonization Society? The Movement Grows GUIDING QUESTION Why did the antislavery movement gain momentum? Colonization and gradual steps toward abolition remained the main goals of antislavery groups until the 1830s. Then their strategy changed. Abolitionists began to argue that enslaved African Americans should be freed immediately. Northerners Work Against Slavery Massachusetts’ William Lloyd Garrison had a great influence on the antislavery movement. In 1831, he started a newspaper called The Liberator . Garrison was one of the first white

But in the South, the practice continued and thrived. The rise of the Cotton Kingdom increased the use of enslaved labor. The reform movement of the early and mid-1800s, including the Second Great Awakening, gave new life to the antislavery cause. A growing number of Americans were coming to believe that slavery was wrong and that the practice should end. A number of leaders in the antislavery movement were of the Quaker faith. One Quaker, Benjamin Lundy, founded a newspaper in Ohio in 1821 called the Genius of Universal Emancipation . To emancipate means to set free. The purpose of the newspaper was to spread the abolitionist message. The Colonization Plan There were many barriers to ending slavery. Many white Northerners still supported the practice. Even some white abolitionists worried about the effect freed African Americans might have on society. They did not like the idea of hundreds of thousands of formerly enslaved people living in the United States. Some white Americans began to believe that freed African Americans should voluntarily leave the country. However, the idea of an African settlement for formerly enslaved people originated with Paul Cuffe, a successful African American businessperson from Massachusetts. His efforts to convince African Americans to move to Sierra Leone failed. In 1816, a group of powerful whites formed the American

emancipate to set free

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William Lloyd Garrison founded The Liberator to advocate for abolition.

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