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Back to Africa Movement

The so-called Back to Africa movements—projects designed to repatriate people of African descent, willingly and unwillingly, to West Africa and elsewhere during the 19th and 20th centuries—are often omitted from accounts of U.S. history. Yet these movements played an important part in the history of Black Nationalism and civil rights in the United States. Championed by both Whites and Blacks, Black emigration from the United States to Africa reached its apex with the creation of Liberia. This entry reviews the history of the movement and its impact.

Historical Origin

The idea of repatriating to Africa predates the American Revolution. Virtually every national leader from Thomas Jefferson to Abraham Lincoln held the conviction that Blacks and Whites could not coexist as free and equal citizens. As a result, these men encouraged emigration, as did James Madison, Daniel Webster, Andrew Jackson, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, Chief Justice Bushrod Washington, and even Harriet Beecher Stowe. Other advocates included Martin Delany, Henry McNeal Turner, Alexander Crummell, and Marcus Garvey.

Sending liberated Blacks to Africa gained momentum after the successful settlement at Fourah Bay, Sierra Leone, in 1787, by the British Crown. There, several hundred liberated slaves were settled. Later, New Englander Paul Cuffe, a successful Black shipper, inquired about conditions in Sierra Leone and established organizations in the United States to assist in the repatriation of liberated Blacks. In 1815, Paul Cuffe successfully took nine families consisting of thirty-eight people to Sierra Leone. Such voyages encouraged many free Black and White abolitionists to do the same.

Drawing on the success of the Fourah Bay settlement and Cuffe's inspirational voyage, the American Colonization Society (ACS) (formally named “The American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color of the United States”) was established in 1816. Its aim was to have liberated Blacks colonize the western coast of Africa. Three groups supported the ACS. First, there were those who believed that resettlement was the only means by which Blacks could obtain a modicum of freedom and justice. Others were motivated by the goal of spreading Christianity to what they saw as “savage” Africa. The third group—and the source of most ACS support—were southern planters and slaveowners who grew fearful of the free Black population. Slaveowners wanted free Blacks removed from the nation for fear that they might ignite an insurrection among slaves. Therefore, many slaveowners saw repatriation as the only means of ridding themselves of this “dangerous” group, especially given the success of the Haitian revolution.

Sailing for Sierra Leone

In 1820, the ACS launched the brig Elizabeth, bound for the Grain Coast with eighty-eight African American emigrants. The Elizabeth landed at Sherbro Island in Sierra Leone. Soon thereafter, about a quarter of the would-be colonists died of vector-born diseases like malaria, dengue, and yellow fever. Led by Elijah Johnson, the survivors retreated to Freetown, Sierra Leone. Despite the initial failure, the ACS pushed forth and sailed a second group in 1821.

Escorted by the U.S.S. Alligator, the Augusta landed in 1821 at Cape Mesurado, a site that was selected by a young American lieutenant named Matthew Perry. After negotiations with indigenous African chiefs—who reluctantly agreed to sell their land—the ACS agents and settlers purchased sixty miles of land along the coast for U.S. $300. In April 1822, the first settlement was established, but not without resistance from the native population.

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