The Search for Independence

Abstract

In both Britain and the United States, slaves were chattels possessing no rights whatever in law or custom, and instances of gross maltreatment were not uncommon (Fyfe, 1962, p. 13). The so-called free Blacks in both countries were only nominally free. Not surprisingly, some White and persons saw emigration of Blacks to Africa as a way out of their oppression in the New World. Aided by some British philanthropists, notably Granville Sharp, William Wilberforce, and Thomas Clarkson, and by the British government, about 400 Blacks recently freed by British law and nicknamed the Black Poor emigrated from Britain to Sierra Leone in April 1787. In January 1792 and September 1800, about 1,190 Nova Scotian Blacks and about 550 Maroons, respectively, emigrated from Canada to Sierra Leone, aided by the Sierra Leone Company, which some British philanthropists and merchants had incorporated in June 1791 to trade with, and administer, Sierra Leone (Akpan, 1978, p. 93).' Similarly in 1822, about 80 African Americans settled in Liberia under the patronage of the American Colonization Society (ACS) and the U.S. government. By 1900 over 16,000 African Americans and about 400 Afro-West Indians had settled in Liberia, aided largely by the ACS. Additionally, between 1822 and 1862, about 5,500 recaptured Africans, mostly people from the Congo region who were seized from slavers in the Atlantic waters by American