From the Archives: The American Colonization Society

By Mary Klein, Diocesan Archivist

On June 10, 1819, the lay and clerical delegates meeting for the 29th Annual Convention of the Diocese of Maryland gathered at St. Paul’s Church, Baltimore, passed the following resolution: “That the institution of the society for colonizing the free people of colour of the United States on the coast of Africa, meets with the cordial approbation of this convention; and it is earnestly recommended to the members of the Protestant Episcopal Church in this diocese, to give to the said society their countenance and support. And further, that the thanks of the convention be presented to the Honourable Bushrod Washington, the president, and the board of managers for their zealous exertions in furtherance of the benevolent object of the society.”

For a Diocese that assiduously avoided all mention of political topics at church gatherings, not ever discussing the Civil War, even in the midst of it, this seems an extraordinary resolution to pass. Fourty copies of the “second annual report of the American Society for colonizing free persons of colour” had been distributed at the convention by Edward J. Coale, Esq, who was the agent of the Society in Maryland. Coale was a churchwarden at St. Paul’s Church, a bookseller and publisher of note. He later was instrumental in the founding of St. James’ First African Protestant Episcopal Church in Baltimore in 1824, soliciting funds, land and bricks so that the congregation could be established and have a place to worship.

Edward Coale was friendly with Daniel Coker, born into slavery in 1780, who helped found the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816, and immigrated to the British Colony of Sierra Leone in 1820. In a letter to Bishop Kemp dated January 29, 1820, Coker asks that Kemp contact Coale and two other men in Baltimore to “inquire after my dear family and not let them suffer.” Coker was in New York aboard an “armed vessel” along with 50 “colored people just arrived from Philadelphia” on the way to Sierra Leone, promising “Should God speare my life to get to the colony I shall write to you …fully.”

Perhaps an explanation of the extraordinary resolution passed at the Diocese of Maryland convention may be summed up in an American Colonization Society summary pamphlet of 1834: “The plan of colonizing free blacks, has been justly considered one of the noblest devices of Christian benevolence and enlightened patriotism, grand in its object, and most happily adapted to enlist the combined influence and harmonious cooperation of different classes of society. It reconciles, and brings together some discordant interests, which could not in any other plan be brought to meeting in harmony. The Christian and the stateman here act together, and persons having entirely different views from each other in reference to some collateral points connected with the great subject, are moved towards the same point by a diversity of motives. It is a splendid conception, around which are gathered the hopes of the nation, the wishes of the patriot, the prayers of the Christian, and we trust, the approbation of Heaven.”

The American Colonization Society (originally called the Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color in America) had been established in 1816 to support the migration of free persons of color to the continent of Africa. Always considered a controversial idea, the Society’s aims were opposed by the abolitionist movement and by many African Americans, although some supporters, among them evangelicals, Quakers, and philanthropists, genuinely believed that freed slaves could never be totally equal in the United States, reasoning that Freedmen would have better chances of freedom and citizenship in their own separate country.

The population of free persons of color had grown steadily in the United States following the American Revolution. In 1790, there were 59,000; and by 1810, the number had increased to 174,000, causing fear among enslavers that these free blacks would encourage their “property” to escape or rebel. In 1810, Maryland was home to more free blacks than any other state in the country – 34,000, while Virginia was not far behind with 30,000. Interestingly, the founders of the American Colonization Society (ACS), were all Southerners: Charles Mercer, John Randolph, Richard Bland Lee and Bushrod Washington (the nephew of George Washington) of Virginia, and Henry Clay of Kentucky. They set out three goals: to provide a place for free persons of color and their descendants to live, free of racism; to ensure that the place they chose was able to support farming; and to suppress attempts to further engage in the slave trade. The Society sold memberships to raise funds and received $100,000 from Congress in 1819. Several state legislatures, including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Missouri and Maryland, set aside money for the Society, as well.

The first emigrant ship, the Elizabeth, which came to be known as “The Mayflower of Liberia”, sailed from New York on February 6, 1820, with 88 African Americans on board along with three white agents from the ACS. Early leaders of the colony of Liberia settled on the west coast of Africa and agents of the ACS set about leasing, annexing or buying tribal lands on major rivers and along the coast. In 1825, King Peter and other native kings sold their land to the Society for 500 bars of tobacco, three barrels of rum, five casks of gun powder, five umbrellas, ten iron posts, and ten pairs of shoes, plus other lesser items.

The scheme to “repatriate” free persons of color to Africa met with vociferous disdain from prominent African Americans. Frederick Douglas said, “We live here – have lived here -have a right to live here and mean to live here.” Many white abolitionists originally joined the Society but began to have second thoughts, including William Lloyd Garrison, “The Liberator”. He said in 1832, “We were, however, rather surprised to see the proposal of sending the free negroes to Africa as returning them to their native land. It would be as well at least to talk of sending these reverend gentlemen back to England as their native land. If they would really promote the happiness of the negro, let their efforts be directed to raise the oppressed black in the scale of moral elevation here. Let them admit him to more rights in the social world.”

Occasionally enslavers agreed to manumit some of their slaves, on the condition that they immediately immigrate to the African colony of Liberia, or to the Maryland Colony, which had been an independent west-African Republic (1834-1857), before it was annexed by Liberia. The Maryland Colonization Society enticed masters to manumit their slaves by offering free passage, five acres of land, low-interest loans and rent to new arrivals. On November 5, 1843, the Right Rev. William R. Whittingham confirmed nine persons at St. James’ (First African) Church in Baltimore (now St. James; Church, Lafayette Square). Always a meticulous record-keeper, the bishop noted in his book of confirmations, “All late of Trinity Parish, Charles County, but about to sail for the Maryland Colony, Africa; being manumitted servants of the Rev. Henry B. Goodwin, by whom they have been prepared and are recommended for confirmation.”

Henry Bradford Goodwin was a native of Massachusetts, brought up in the Congregational Church. He attended Virginia Theological Seminary and was ordained in the Episcopal Church in 1829 by Bishop Moore of Virginia and, after a brief stay in a parish in Saco, Maine, transferred to Maryland in 1832. He became rector of St. Paul’s Church, Prince George’s County, but left after two years, having married Susan Parnham on December 6, 1832, and “settled on his estate in Charles County”. From an undated narrative on the life of Henry Goodwin, written by a nephew, Susan Parnham was described this way: “She owned a large estate, including several plantations and hundreds of slaves, who had been maintained in comparative idleness.”  The Henry Goodwin narrative continued, “To the care of this property and the welfare of his servants, he had now to devote himself, but he preached as opportunity offered. His home was ‘Parnham Retreat’, Prince George’s County. He sold much of his wife’s land and invested the proceeds, but the Negroes remained on his hands. A few consented to go to Liberia, being presented with freedom and an outfit, but the majority shrewdly preferred a life of careless ease in Maryland and refused to go.”

One year after his former slaves’ confirmations and departure for the Maryland Colony, Goodwin wrote a pamphlet entitled “North and South”, giving his name as “A Northern Man with Southern Citizenship”, in which he defended slavery, insisting that “slavery in the United States has resulted in the permanent good and advancement of the Negro race.”

The purposes of the American Colonization Society proved expensive to carry out, and the organization never had enough money to achieve their stated goals. Not only were there funding problems, but lack of interest by free blacks and opposition by some abolitionists, both black and white, caused the emigrations to slow to a trickle. Between 1820 and 1864, between 11,000 and 15,000 African Americans went to Liberia – among them about 4,000 free persons of color and 7,000 formerly enslaved who gained their manumission by agreeing to emigrate to Liberia. Following the Civil War, there were over 4 million Freedmen in the South, but the Colonization Society never could have covered the cost of moving large numbers of newly freed slaves. The Society was not formally dissolved until 1964.