The Liberians

The American Colonization Society (in full: The Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America) was an organization that helped in founding Liberia, a colony on the coast of West Africa, in 1821 and transported free blacks there from the United States. During the next 20 years the colony continued to grow and establish economic stability. In 1847, the legislature of Liberia declared itself an independent state.

Some charged that the ACS was a racist society, while others point to its benevolent origins and later takeover by men with visions of an American empire in Africa, although both black and white Americans were a part of the ACS. The Society closely controlled the development of Liberia until 1847, when it was declared to be an independent republic. By 1867, the ACS had assisted in the movement of more than 13,000 Americans to Liberia, whose descendants came to be called Americo-Liberians. The organization was formally dissolved in 1964.