The Slave Trade Act of 1819

A New Look at Colonization and the Politics of Slavery

Dados Bibliográficos

ID9366264
AutoresEric Burin (University of North Dakota, autor correspondente)
Ano2012
Volume13
Fascículo1
Páginas1-14
Data de publicação2012-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAmerican Nineteenth Century History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1466-4658 • E-ISSN: 1743-7903
EditoraRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14664658.2012.681940
OpenAlexW1983972555
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3
Referências citadas48

Few topics have garnered more scholarly attention lately than the African colonization movement. Now more than ever, researchers appreciate colonization's enduring role in the politics of slavery. Yet most of them continue to portray colonization as quixotic fantasy that inevitably failed as a public policy. In truth, the movement scored a number of triumphs. None was more important than the establishment of Liberia. This essay examines the first and arguably most significant obstacle that impeded the Liberian enterprise – securing government funding. Prior to 1816, colonization schemes abounded, but none came close to securing state support. However, in January 1817, the newly established American Colonization Society (ACS) asked Congress to create a colony for free blacks, and the House Slave Trade committee issued a largely favorable report, thus bringing colonizationists to the threshold of the government vaults. But as conflicts over slavery grew worse, the vaults' doors began swinging shut. Consequently, in 1819 colonizationists resorted to subterfuge, obtaining federal assistance under the guise of helping dispose of “recaptured Africans” (i.e., foreign slaves illegally imported into the United States). Stealth may not have been an especially noble means of obtaining government aid, but it was an effective one that testifies to the colonizationists' resourcefulness and resolve. Indeed, without it, colonizationists would never have received the federal funding that was essential to achieving their signature – if underappreciated – success, the founding of Liberia

Colonization · Craft · Government (linguistics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · History · Law · Public Administration · Race, History, and American Society