Description
Book SynopsisAgainst Wind and Tide tells the story of African American's battle against the American Colonization Society (ACS), founded in 1816 with the intention to return free blacks to its colony Liberia. Although ACS members considered free black colonization in Africa a benevolent enterprise, most black leaders rejected the ACS, fearing that the organization sought forced removal. As Ousmane K. Power-Greene's story shows, these African American anticolonizationists did not believe Liberia would ever be a true black American homeland.
In this study of anticolonization agitation, Power-Greene draws on newspapers, meeting minutes, and letters to explore the concerted effort on the part of nineteenth century black activists, community leaders, and spokespersons to challenge the American Colonization Society's attempt to make colonization of free blacks federal policy. The ACS insisted the plan embodied empowerment. The United States, they argued, would never accept free blacks as citizens
Trade Review
Against Wind and Tide probes more deeply into the history of black opposition to the American Colonization Society's program of removal than any previous work. Power-Greene skillfully weaves together a number of important historical strands of the antebellum period that illuminate just how central the debate over Liberian colonization was in relationship to African American identity and presence in the United States. Significantly, he pays close attention to the place of Haiti as an alternative site for African American migration and identity formation, detailing how crucial the black republic was to any discussion of Afro-Atlantic destiny. -- Claude Clegg,Indiana University
Power-GreenesAgainst Wind and Tideis successful in engaging the historical literature on emigration and colonization and in revealing the schemes mounted by racist colonizationists and the black and white resistance to the movement. * Journal of African American History *
Well-written and cogently argued,Against Wind and Tideis a must-read for scholars interested in the African Colonization Movement. * American Historical Review *
Against Wind and Tideis a fine contribution to the story of African colonization movements in early American history. * The Journal of American History *
Table of Contents
Contents Acknowledgments xiii Preface xvii Introduction 1 1 "The Means of Alleviating the Suffering": Haitian Emigration and the Colonization Movement, 1817-1830 17 2 "One of the Wildest Projects Ever": Abolitionists and the Anticolonizationist Impulse, 1830-1840 46 3 "The Cause Is God's and Must Prevail": Building an Anticolonizationist Wall in Great Britain, 1830-1850 63 4 Resurrecting the "Iniquitous Scheme": The Rebirth of the Colonization Movement in America, 1840-1854 95 5 "An Undue Illusion": Emigration, Colonization, and the Destiny of the Colored Races, 1850-1858 129 6 "For God and Humanity": Anticolonization in the Civil War Era 158 Epilogue 193 Notes 201 Index 239 About the Author 247
