AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY

organization founded in the United States in 1817 to transport free-born blacks and emancipated slaves to Africa. It was supported by local branches, churches, and the legislatures of border states. The society's program focused on purchasing and freeing slaves, paying their passage to the west coast of Africa, and assisting them after their arrival there. In 1821, after protracted negotiations with local chiefs, the society acquired the Cape Mesurado area, subsequently the site of Monrovia, Liberia. The society was opposed by many antislavery advocates because it drained off the best of the free black population while still preserving slavery. Reviled by extremists on both sides of the slavery dispute and suffering from a shortage of money, the society declined after 1840. In 1847 Liberia, until then virtually an overseas branch of the society, declared its independence. Between 1821 and 1867 about 6,000 blacks were resettled by the group, which was dissolved in 1912.