ABSTRACT
Colonization acquired an infamous reputation as a result of the assaults of abolitionists. However, it attracted earnest and distinguished individuals, and had patently promising aspects. Thus, Benjamin Lundy {1789-1839), a pioneer abolitionist, made great efforts to colonize Negroes in Canada, in Texas, and in Haiti. His goal was to provide opportunities for self improve ment for free Negroes, to encourage slaveholders to manumit slaves for whose safety they might fear in a slavery-supporting nation, and to provide dramatic proof of the ability of Negroes to administer their own affairs and to improve their holdings of land and resources. Some of these reasons in spired founders of the American Colonization Society in 1816, who attracted Federal and philanthropic support North and South. However, impatient ab olitionists came to believe that the main goal of colonization was not to stir up a wave of manumissions of slaves, but to rid the country offree Negroes. Garrison's Thoughts on African Colonization . . . {1832) was a wounding blow to the Society's prestige. William Jay's Inquiry into the Character and Tendency of the American Colonization and American AntiSlavery Societies {1835) was an all but mortal blow.
