Emigration to Liberia, 1820-1904

FAIN: FB-53053-07

Eric Burin
University of North Dakota (Grand Forks, ND 58202-6059)

From the pre-Revolutionary period through the post-Reconstruction era, the African Colonization Movement shaped the debates on slavery and race in America. The American Colonization Society (ACS) epitomized this enduring crusade. Founded in 1816, the ACS established Liberia as a place for black settlement. I am constructing a database of the 16,000 African Americans who emigrated to Liberia; a NEH fellowship would allow me to complete two critical phases of the project. Ultimately, this database will be an unparalleled resource on American out-migrants, U.S. manumissions, free blacks, Liberia, and the “black Atlantic” communications network, and I will make it available to other scholars via the Minnesota Population Center website.