Meeting on the Formation of the American Colonization Society

1816_ACS.pdf

Title

Meeting on the Formation of the American Colonization Society

Creator

American Colonization Society

Description

Colonization was one of the first post-revolutionary movements seeking to deal with the problem of slavery in the new United States. Whites from both slaveholding and nonslaveholding states formed the American Colonization Society (ACS) in 1817 in Washington, D.C. These minutes from the meeting to form the ACA in 1816 reveals the motivations of its members.

Source

Robert Weise and Edward L. Ayers, eds., American Passages (Fort Worth: Harcourt, 2000), 151-153.

Date

1816

Questions

  • What did members of the American Colonization Society (ACS) see as the benefits of colonization of the free black population?
  • In what ways might the ACS have weakened slavery? In what ways might the ACS have strengthened slavery? Do you think the ACS ultimately weakened or strengthened slavery?