The First American Colonization Society Ship Set Sail

On February 6, 1820 the first 88 African American immigrants sponsored by The Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America (better known as the American Colonization Society) departed New York City to start a settlement in present-day Liberia.

The American Colonization Society was established in 1816 by Robert Finley as a compromise designed to satisfy two very different groups in America. The two groups were on opposite sides of the debate over slavery in the early 19th century. On one side were philanthropists, clergy and abolitionist who wanted to free African slaves and their descendants from bondage and give them the opportunity to return to Africa. The other side consisted of slave owners who feared that free blacks would undermine the institution of slavery and wanted any non-enslaved black people expelled from America.

Both groups agreed with the general principle that free blacks would not be able to successfully assimilate themselves into the largely white society of the time. At this time, about 2 million people of African decent lived in America in total about 200,000 of them having been freed from slavery.

Henry Clay

Henry Clay, a southern congressman and sympathizer of the plight of free blacks, believed that because of “unconquerable prejudice resulting from their color, they never could amalgamate with the free whites of this country.”

On December 21, 1816, a group of exclusively white upper-class males including James Monroe, Bushrod Washington, Andrew Jackson, Francis Scott Key, and Daniel Webster met at the Davis hotel in Washington D.C. with Henry Clay presiding over the meeting to discuss what to do about the “problem”. One week later they met again and adopted a constitution. Between 1816 and 1819 the society focused on raising money by selling memberships. The Society’s members relentlessly pressured Congress and the President for support.

The First Colony

In 1819, the Society received a grant of $100,000 from Congress and on February 6, 1820 the first ship, the Elizabeth, set sail from New York headed for West Africa with three white Society agents agents and eighty-eight black emigrants.

Henry Clay on the role of trust in a representative form of government

“Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees; and both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people.”

– Henry Clay

Henry Clay (1777-1852) was Speaker of the House, Secretary of State, and a US senator during his long career in public service. Clay played a major role in both the Missouri Compromise (1820) and the Compromise of 1850.