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Re: Tim Hashaw responds to Kevin Mullins' post to Curtis - friend9
Posted by: Lucy Suder (ID *****1523) Date: May 23, 2008 at 11:54:21
In Reply to: Tim Hashaw responds to Kevin Mullins' post to Curtis - friend9 by Curtis Christy of 26754

Curtis Christy,

Another suggestion for you and Tim Hashaw which may assist a more accurate appraisal of the political name calling you've discovered in Richmond would be assessment of the history leading up to the American Colonization Society. See below.

Lucy Suder

an excerpt from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Colonization_Society

Colonization as a solution to the "problem" of free blacks
Following the American Revolutionary War, the "peculiar Institution" of slavery and those bound within it grew. At the same time, due in part to manumission efforts sparked by the war and the abolition of slavery in Northern states, there was an expansion of the ranks of free blacks.

The domestic forces which significantly influenced the concept of colonization included the abortive slave rebellion which was headed by Gabriel in 1800, during President James Monroe's tenure as governor of the state of Virginia, and the alarming increase in the number of free African-Americans in the United States. Although the ratio of whites to blacks was 8:2 from 1790 to 1800, it was the massive increase in the number of free African-Americans that disturbed the colonizationists. From 1790 to 1800, the number of free African-Americans increased from 59,467 to 108,378, a percentage increase of 82 percent; and from 1800 to 1810, the number increased from 108,378 to 186,446, an increase of 72 percent.

This dramatic increase did not go unnoticed by a wary white community that kept a wary eye out for the free blacks in their midst. The arguments propounded against free blacks, especially in free states, may be divided into four main categories. One argument pointed toward the perceived moral laxity of blacks. Blacks, some said, were licentious beings who would draw whites into their savage, unrestrained ways. These fears of an intermingling of the races were strong and underlay much of the outcry for removal.

Along these same lines, blacks were accused of a tendency toward criminality and were thought inclined to deviate from the straight and narrow path. Still others claimed that the mental inferiority of African-Americans made them unfit for the duties of citizenship and incapable of real improvement. Economic considerations were also put forth. Free blacks, it was thought, would only take jobs away from whites. This feeling was especially strong among the "working class" in the North. Southerners had their special reservations about free blacks. It was feared that freedmen located in slave areas would act as an enticing reminder of what freedom might mean and encourage runaways and slave revolts.

While the colonizationists in the South were motivated by racism and fear of slave uprising; the white colonizationists in the North refused to accept the notion of white-black co-existence. The proposed solution was to have this class of people deported from United States to Africa by a process euphemistically called "colonization".



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