It comforted slave owners by announcing that it was not
concerned with either emancipation or amelioration. Both were outside
its jurisdiction. It did imply that slaves might eventually be
purchased for colonization. Most of its propaganda tried to
demonstrate that the freedman lived in a wretched state of poverty,
immorality, and ignorance and that he would be better off in Africa.
The movement received widespread support from almost all sectors
of the white community including presidents Madison and Jackson.
Several state legislatures supported the idea, and Congress voted
$100,000 to finance the plan which eventually led to the establishment
of the Republic of Liberia.
However, the Afro-American community was not very enthusiastic
about the project. In 1817 three thousand blacks crowded into the
Bethel Church in Philadelphia and, led by Richard Allen, vehemently
criticized colonization. They charged that the Society's propaganda
only served to increase racial discrimination since it stressed the
poverty and ignorance of the freedman and claimed he was doomed to
continue in his filth and degradation because of his natural
inferiority.
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