The American Colonization Society was established in 1816 by a coalition of Upper South politicians and Northern and Southern ministers to establish a colony on the west coast of Africa for the voluntary emigration of free Blacks from the United States. Many supporters hoped that reducing the free Black population would promote manumissions in the South and help to gradually end slavery. Most whites viewed free Blacks as troublesome. Although denied full freedom and equality, their very presence threatened the stability of slavery and white supremacy. Most free Blacks rejected the idea of African colonization although some found it appealing or had to choose between emigration and slavery. Contradictory though it was, colonization was the first organized national antislavery movement and catalyzed the Abolition movement.
After historian Marie Tyler-McGraw published An African Republic: Black and White Virginians in the Making of Liberia (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007), she wanted to make her research available to others. Further collaboration with other historians and institutions made this website possible.
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LINK TO SOURCE:
https://virginians-to-liberia.iath.virginia.edu/