Reverse+Migration+To+The+Muck

The movement of African-Americans started with the American Colonization Society, which was established 1816. After the South had been taking Blacks out of slavery and granting them freedom, the American Colonization Society wanted to find somewhere they could settle the emancipated African-Americans. In 1820, they ended up settling Blacks in what became Liberia. "By 1850, the society had spent about eighteen million to ship ten thousand African Americans to Liberia."

....................................................... When the Civil War came about, African-Americans had no intention of emigrating back to Africa, and the emigration rate declined sharply. Yet with the collapse of Radical Reconstruction in 1877, and the withdrawal of federal troops from the South, African Americans had been motivated enough and the emigration movement to Africa rose again.



The colonization of free blacks in Africa had been a controversial issue among both Blacks and whites. Some Blacks did support emigration because they believed blacks would never gain justice and equality in America. Other African-Americans believed they should continue to persist in America and fight for their freedoms and rights, and against slavery. Whites who supported the colonization of free Blacks in Africa did so in seeing that it was a way of ridding the nation of the African-Americans. Although, others did support it because they believed it was the best way to keep African-Americans away from racial discrimination, and just because they would probably be happier there in Africa. On top, there were those who believed the African-Americans would play a fundamental role in civilizing and Christianizing Africa.

African-Americans may have left the American society they had previously lived in, but they did not leave behind the American culture. Actually, they recreated an American lifestyle in Liberia. The African-Americans mostly spoke the same language, which was english, and kept other things like the styles of buildings and homes in the South. In fact, the culture/social life of the migrant Africans didnt correspond much to the African society, since it depicted the American (western) lifestyle more. "Many conceived of their role as that of a missionary bringing civilization to the 'backward' people."

Where It Comes Together 3 The Black Migration