Highlights from the Gates Collection of African American History and Culture

Douglass on Colonization

"The Colonization Scheme," <em>Frederick Douglass' Paper</em>

“The Colonization Scheme”
Frederick Douglass' Paper, vol. 5 no. 5: January 22, 1852

Frederick Douglass was an outspoken opponent of the American Colonization Society’s proposal for African-American emigration, asserting that African-Americans were entitled to equality in their own country of origin, the United States. 

From the Frederick Douglass' Paper, January 22, 1852:

The Colonization Scheme

There is no sentiment more universally entertained, nor more firmly held by the free colored people of the United States, than that this is their own, their native land, and that here (for good or for evil) their destiny is to be wrought out.  Identified with the entire history of the American people, going back more than two hundred years, this sentiment is natural and praiseworthy.  There is not now, there never has been, and we think there will never be, any general desire on the part of our people, to emigrate from this land to any other and least of all, to the wilds of Africa.

Portland State University Branford P. Millar Library | 1875 SW Park Avenue | Portland, Oregon 97201 | 503.725.5874 | Accessibility | Support the Library |