Thoughts on African Colonization — Context and Discussion

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In Category - Ethics

Authors: Garrison, William Lloyd, 1805-1879 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2010 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Slavery -- United States; African Americans -- Colonization -- Africa; American Colonization Society Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

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Words 116,586

Reading time 507 min

Text sections 14

For Thoughts on African Colonization — Context and Discussion, the stored edition analysis reports 116,586 words, 8 hr 27 min estimated reading time, and 14 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 26.6 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Slavery -- United States,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #31178

Garrison's 1832 polemic dissects the American Colonization Society's rhetoric, exposing its complicity with slavery through close reading of its own publications and speeches.

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Nor was he disposed even to go as far as the gentleman who had just spoken, (Mr Mercer) in saying that he would emancipate his slaves, if the means were provided of sending them from the country.'--[Speech of Henry Clay.--First Annual Report.]

'It was proper and necessary distinctly to state, that he understood it constituted no part of the object of this meeting, to touch or agitate in the slightest degree, a delicate question, connected with another portion of the colored population of our country. It was not proposed to deliberate upon or consider at all, any question of emancipation, or that which was connected with the abolition of slavery. It was upon that condition alone, he was sure, that many gentlemen from the South and West, whom he saw present, had attended, or could be expected to co-operate. It was upon that condition only, that he himself had attended.'--[Speech of Mr Clay before the Society, Jan. 1, 1818.--Second Annual Report.]

'It had been properly observed by the chairman, as well as by the gentleman from this District (Messrs Clay and Caldwell) that there was nothing in the proposition submitted to consideration which in the smallest degree touched another very important and delicate question, which ought to be left as much out of view as possible, (Negro slavery.) * * * Mr R. concluded by saying, that he had thought it necessary to make these remarks, being a slaveholder himself, to shew, that, so far from being connected with the abolition of slavery, _the measure proposed would prove one of the greatest securities to enable the master to keep in possession his own property_.'--[Speech of John Randolph at the same meeting.]

'Your committee would not thus favorably regard the prayer of the memorialists, if it sought to impair, _in the slightest degree_, the rights of private property, or the yet more sacred rights of personal liberty, secured to every description of freemen in the United States.

'The resolution of the legislature of Virginia, the subsequent acts and declarations, as well as the high character of the memorialists themselves, added to the most obvious interest of the states who have recently sanctioned the purpose, or recognized the existence of the American Colonization Society, exclude _the remotest apprehension of such injustice and inhumanity_.'

--[Report of the committee of the House of Representatives of the United States, on the memorial of the President and Board of Managers of the Colonization Society.--Second Annual Report.]

'An effort for the benefit of the blacks, in which all parts of the country can unite, of course _must not have the abolition of slavery for its immediate object_. NOR MAY IT AIM DIRECTLY AT THE INSTRUCTION OF THE BLACKS. In either case, the _prejudices_ and _terrors_ of the slaveholding States would be excited in a moment; and with reason too, for it is a well-established point, that _the public safety forbids either the emancipation or the general instruction of the slaves_.' * * * 'It [African Colonization] is an enterprise in which _all parts of the country can unite_. The grand objection to every other effort is, that it excites the _jealousies_ and _fears_ of the south. But here is an effort in which the southern people are the first to engage, and which numbers many of their most distinguished men among its advocates and efficient supporters.'--[Review of the Reports of the Society, from the Christian Spectator.--Seventh Annual Report.]

'It will be seen at home and abroad, that the American Colonization Society, while it _properly enough_ stands aloof from the question of slavery, and the abolition of slavery,' &c.--[Report of William McKenney.--Eighth Annual Report.]

'The objects of this institution are well known to the world; for no concealment whatever has ever been intended. The Society aims at the removal of free persons of color; _it interferes, in no way whatever, with the rights of property_.'--[Speech of G. W. Custis, Esq.--Ninth Annual Report.]

'We are reproached with doing mischief by the agitation of this question. The Society goes into no household to disturb its domestic tranquillity; it addresses itself to no slaves to weaken their obligations of obedience. _It seeks to affect no man's property._'--[Speech of Mr Clay.--Tenth Annual Report.]

'The Committee to whom was referred the memorial of the American Colonization Society, have had the subject under consideration, and now report:

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William Lloyd Garrison opens Thoughts on African Colonization with a dedication that frames the work as an appeal to national conscience, yet the book's method is relentlessly forensic. Rather than a general moral argument, Garrison builds his case by quoting extensively from the American Colonization Society's own documents—its journal, speeches, and newspaper notices—and then annotating them with pointed commentary. This technique turns the Society's words into evidence against itself. The preface sets the tone: Garrison calls on his countrymen to 'imitate the example of the people of Great Britain' and organize a national anti-slavery society, but the body of the work is a meticulous, section-by-section indictment of colonization as a 'base conspiracy' to expel free Blacks and perpetuate slavery.

The Society's Own Words as Evidence

Garrison's primary rhetorical strategy is to let the Colonization Society condemn itself. He reproduces passages from the African Repository, from newspapers like the New-York Standard and the Alexandria Gazette, and from speeches by Society supporters. One quoted memorial from the New-York State Colonization Society explicitly states that the condition of free Blacks 'is not susceptible of a radical and permanent improvement' and deprecates 'any legislation that should encourage the vain and injurious hope of it.' Another, from Mr. Mercer's speech in Congress, declares that 'the abolition of slavery was no object of desire to him, unless accompanied by colonization.' By juxtaposing such statements, Garrison demonstrates that the Society's professed benevolence is undercut by its own admissions of racial animus and its refusal to countenance emancipation without expulsion.

The Charge of Deception

Garrison repeatedly accuses the Colonization Society of deceiving the public. He argues that its leaders represent free Blacks as 'aliens and foreigners' who are 'sighing to return to their native land,' when in fact the Society's own publications reveal a different motive: ridding the United States of its Black population. He quotes the African Repository asking, 'Who would not rejoice to see our country liberated from her black population?' and the New-Haven Palladium asserting that 'God has put a mark upon the black man.' Garrison's commentary highlights the gap between the Society's humanitarian language and its underlying goal of racial exclusion. He calls the enterprise 'one of the wildest and most disgraceful crusades the world has ever witnessed,' a phrase that captures his moral outrage while grounding the accusation in the Society's own rhetoric.

Structure as Argument

The book is organized into two parts, the first a series of ten sections each headed by a declarative accusation—for example, 'The American Colonization Society is pledged not to oppose the system of slavery' and 'The American Colonization Society apologises for slavery and slaveholders.' This structure functions as a legal brief, with each section presenting a distinct charge supported by documentary evidence. The second part collects 'Sentiments of the People of Color,' giving voice to those most affected by colonization schemes. Garrison's method is cumulative: the reader moves through a chain of indictments, each reinforced by quotations that the Society cannot disavow. The effect is to transform the book into a courtroom, with the Society's own words serving as the prosecution's chief exhibit.

Diction and the Moral Calculus

Garrison's own language is charged with moral fervor. He speaks of 'a prejudice as unmanly as it is wicked,' of 'bloody stains,' and of a 'mean and thievish course of conduct.' Yet his most effective passages are those where he lets the Society's diction speak for itself. When he quotes the Essex Chronicle stating that emancipation without removal 'would be the greatest curse that could befal them or community,' or the N. Y. Journal of Commerce hoping to make it 'for the interest of the owners' to part with slaves, he exposes the cold calculation behind colonization. The Society's language of 'interest,' 'safety,' and 'expediency' contrasts sharply with Garrison's vocabulary of 'righteous indignation' and 'moral strength.' This lexical opposition underscores the central conflict: a humanitarian claim versus a racist pragmatism.

Readers approaching Thoughts on African Colonization should attend to Garrison's method of quotation and rebuttal. The book is not a narrative but a polemical compilation, and its force depends on the reader's willingness to weigh the evidence presented. Because the excerpts are drawn from a single side of the debate, the work functions best as a primary document of abolitionist argumentation rather than a balanced history. For those interested in the rhetorical strategies of early American reform movements, Garrison's use of the Society's own publications offers a model of adversarial close reading.

Reading Garrison’s careful dismantling of well-meant words, I kept thinking how easily truth hides in plain language. That same unsettling feeling stayed with me through Byways of Ghost-Land — A Closer Reading, where every quiet detail seems to whisper something sharper beneath it. Some books just sit with you afterward, asking you to look again at what you thought you understood.