Patrick Locke

Setting up a Framework for Emulation: Utopian Aspects of “Back to Africa”  Pre-American Civil War

            Literary utopian texts address a range of core issues involving social, political, and economic institutions. Similarly, historical utopian pursuits respond to vexing issues of the day in ways going beyond speculation. By the late 1700s, the increasing number of ex-slaves and freedmen in America was a problematic issue requiring sensible answers. One solution was to encourage a return to Africa by establishing a colony in Liberia. The purpose of Liberia as such a colony has always been familiar to me, but the time frame and how it fits in with later historical returns back to Africa were not. At a glance, the back to Africa solution seems benign and in the best interest of all parties involved; however, there were other motives involved. The back to Africa movement worked on the assumption that all challenges could be managed. I am interested in Liberian colonization as a utopian model projected in Africa and how it compares to earlier American models of settlement with utopian features. A cursory description of Liberia would point to dystopian tendencies, yet how many of those features are rooted in the initial failure to establish manageable and measurable goals?  Can settlements overcome conflicts and contradictions built into their identities and aims?

Historian Nemata Blyden describes the back to Africa movement in nineteenth century colonies Sierra Leone and Liberia as “social experiments of a sort that had never been tried before” (24). This movement inspired a migration pattern for people of African descent that was west to east, instead of east to west. An understanding of the earlier African American repatriation effort to Sierra Leone is helpful in assessing the eventual challenges in Liberia. Sierra Leone was a British colony comprised of Blacks who fought with the British in the American Revolution (1775-1783). The initial wave of Blacks that arrived in 1787 suffered from disease and a hostile environment. They were followed by groups from Nova Scotia and Jamaica, in 1792 and 1800, respectively. The migration to Sierra Leone was influenced by the anti-slavery movement in Britain (Blyden 23). The settlement in Sierra Leone was perceived of as best able to serve as a “way to destroy the slave trade” in Africa (23).  According to Blyden, the British “hoped to see it [Sierra Leone] grow into a model colony of pliant citizens grateful for the salvation European influence brought, but the small colony turned out to be a site of friction and racial tension with its inhabitants exhibiting individuality and independence” (24). From the onset, this historical attempt at utopian purpose had some of the features of a dystopia. The new inhabitants were not in harmony with their environment and struggled to establish a sustainable economy.

The existence of the Sierra Leone colony offered a possible solution to the ongoing discussions taking place in the United States about slavery in the late 1700s and early 1800s.  Efforts were made to move free African Americans from the United States to Sierra Leone; however, the British government rejected this idea because they felt “African American settlers would bring democratic ideals of liberty and equality, negatively influencing the blacks in their colony” (Blyden 24).  British skepticism was at odds with the utopian goals for the colony. The colony of Sierra Leone served as a model for Liberia. Both colonies were established in the same geographical area on the west coast of Africa. As settlements without slavery, these communities “were to be Christian, self-governing societies that would spread Christianity to the whole of Africa” (Blyden 25).

The concept of Black colonization had been around since the late 1700s in the United States. Many Whites in the U.S. felt Blacks had a better chance to fulfill their potential “on the friendly shores of Africa” (PBS). The discussion surrounding the migration was informed by African American responses to the idea. African Americans were for and against the “back to Africa” movement. Groups against the idea argued that they had a hand in building the U.S. and did not see the attraction in moving beyond its borders. On the other hand, those that were for the movement back to Africa saw in it an opportunity to achieve certain ideals they found difficult in the U.S.

Although there were social and political realities driving the back to Africa movement in the U.S., an underlying religious component of emulation was also at work. Like the earlier American model of settlement in Boston, the Liberian colony was in keeping with John Winthrop’s proposal for a beacon on the hill and brotherhood for the Puritan settlement. The Americanized repatriates brought with them ideals they had embraced from the New World. In addition, they brought habits and expectations that were at odds with their new environment and factored into some of their disillusionment.

There is almost a thirty year gap between the first settlement in Sierra Leone and the colony established in Liberia. The formation of the American Colonization Society (ACS) in 1816 made this idea more of a reality. The first wave of African Americans left the United States in 1819. Their initial attempt to establish a settlement on Sherbro Island near Sierra Leone was a failure, and they travelled to the continent settling parts on the coast that are now a part of Liberia. The new settlement set itself apart from the indigenous population as they established a society which replicated habits and attitudes formed in the United States. They chose not to integrate, and would become part of the ruling elite until the latter part of the last century.  I am interested in researching further accounts from the years between 1822  to 1847. Perhaps, it will trace how the distance from the United States reshaped utopian ideals and perspectives in the new settlement.

The ACS provided financial support for back to Africa movements until after the Civil War. During this time span, about 12,000 blacks were transported to Africa.  The pbs. org link http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3p1521.html provides a series of  Related Entries that cover in detail different points of view regarding back to Africa colonization:

• American Colonization Society: a Memorial to the United States Congress
• Forten letter to Cuffe
• Meeting of Free People of Color of Richmond, Virginia
• Douglas Egerton on the black support for the ACS
• Julie Winch on black support for the ACS and the Bethel meeting
• Douglas Egerton on black response to colonization
• Albert Raboteau on Allen's reaction to the ACS

The motives for establishing the Liberian colony reflect social and political concerns in America. It was in part humanitarian as well as economic. Any investment of capital was done with some return in mind. A close examination of establishing Liberia reveals the desire for a similar outcome to those that were at the roots of Jamestown and Boston. The eventual success of the Jamestown settlement and the Puritan settlement in the 1600s are significant points of reference in the American narrative and are promoted as models of possibilities for others. If Liberia became as successful as those colonies, the model in Africa could have served a similar purpose in an African narrative and exemplar for replication elsewhere.  The Liberian narrative includes a point of origin that for a moment in time had all the trappings of Winthrop’s model to shape a romantic utopian narrative.  However, should the historical legacy from the Liberian narrative be read as a cautionary tale or a dystopia concerning emulation? The failure to acknowledge the challenge of projecting expectations in a new environment is a liability. The settlements at Jamestown and Boston reframed the scope of their narratives to adjust to New World realities.

Works Cited

Blyden, Nemata A.   “The Migration of New World Blacks to Sierra Leaone and Liberia” 

            OAH Magazine of History. vol. 18, no. 3 Apr. 2004. pp. 23-25

Hutton, Frankie. “Economic Considerations in the American Colonization Society’s

            Early Effort to Emigrate Free Blacks to Liberia, 1816-1836” The Journal of

            Negro History, vo. 68, no. 4 (Autumn 2004), pp. 376-389.

“The American Colonization Society: The Movement Begins.”

http://beatl.barnard.columbia.edu/students/his3487/lembrich/seminar62.html 18 June 2011

http://www.liberiapastandpresent.org/ColonizationSociety.htm    18 Jun 2011

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3p1521.html   18 Jun 2011

http://www.slavenorth.com/colonize.htm 18 June 2011