Against Wind and Tide: The African American Struggle against the Colonization Movement

by Ousmane K. Power-Greene

Overview

Against 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, and the only solution to the status of free blacks was to create an autonomous nation that would fundamentally reject racism at its core. But the activists and reformers on the opposite side believed that the colonization movement was itself deeply racist and in fact one of the greatest obstacles for African Americans to gain citizenship in the United States.

Power-Greene synthesizes debates about colonization and emigration, situating this complex and enduring issue into an ever broader conversation about nation building and identity formation in the Atlantic world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781479823178
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	09/05/2014
Series:	Early American Places , #10
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	951,502
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Ousmane K. Power-Greene is Assistant Professor of History at Clark University(MA).

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

Editorial Reviews

"Well-written and cogently argued,Against Wind and Tideis a must-read for scholars interested in the African Colonization Movement."

American Historical Review

"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

"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

"Against Wind and Tideis a fine contribution to the story of African colonization movements in early American history."

The Journal of American History

"Ousmane Power-Greene's book is an important and much-needed corrective to the recent boom in the history of the American colonization movement. In recapitulating the long genealogy of African American opposition to colonization and carefully distinguishing colonization from independent black emigration and nationalist efforts, he has made an indispensable contribution to the early history of the United States as well as the international efforts of black people to stem the tide of slavery and racism in the western world."-Manisha Sinha,University of Massachusetts, Amherst

From the Publisher

11/01/2014
The story of black Americans' battle against the early 19th-century American Colonization Society, which worked to return free blacks to U.S. colony Liberia.

Library Journal