Encyclopedia of African American History

(Marvins-Underground-K-12) #1
African Civilization Society  293

Bibliography
Lipsky, George A. John Quincy Adams: His Th eory and Ideas. New
York: Th omas Y. Crowell, 1950.
Nagel, Paul C. John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, a Private Life.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.

African Civilization Society

Th e African Civilization Society was an organization that
briefl y fl ourished during the mid-19th century and whose
specifi c goal was to institute African colonization by Af-
rican Americans in an eff ort to engender black pride and
black fi nancial independence from white America. Th e
brainchild of Henry Highland Garnet (1815–1882), the Af-
rican Civilization Society was controversial from the outset,
gaining irate critics from inside the black community, who
confl ated it with the racist African Colonization Society.
It is impossible to understand the African Civilization
Society without also appreciating the life of Garnet. A Pres-
byterian minister, Garnet had always been restless about
the status of blacks in America. Aft er escaping slavery, he
relentlessly pursued educational opportunities and the so-
cial mobility aff orded free blacks in the North. In 1843, he
acquired a controversial reputation following his appear-
ance at the National Colored Convention, where he called
on slaves to murder their masters. Other participants at the
convention shunned Garnet for his dramatic recommenda-
tions, particularly Frederick Douglass, with whom he shared
a notorious exchange on the fl oor of the convention.
Although shocking to his contemporaries, Garnet’s en-
dorsement of racial violence can be understood best in con-
text. As a fugitive slave, Garnet had personally experienced
the caustic reality of life for African peoples in America.
Unwilling to await legislative liberation, Garnet persistently
dreamt of black self-determination. To this end, he worked
to increase black institutions, both ecclesiastical and fi nan-
cial. It was in this spirit that he founded the African Civi-
lization Society in 1859. Since the early 19th century, most
African Americans had opposed the labors of the African
Colonization Society, a largely white organization bent on
repatriating blacks to Africa. Many free Northern blacks be-
lieved repatriation was a shortcut to avoid the real dilemma
of racial cohabitation. Garnet, though not a member of the
African Colonization Society, felt there was utility in an Af-
rican return. He established his society with the ambition of

In an attempt to limit slavery’s spread, Adams opposed
the annexation of Texas and the admission of Texas and
Florida as states, and he opposed the Mexican War as an
unjust and proslavery adventure. He also denounced dis-
crimination against free blacks, such as a Virginia law that
allowed the incarceration of blacks on the presumption that
they were escaped slaves and a South Carolina law barring
entry of free blacks into the state.
During the fi rst session of the 22nd Congress alone, he
presented 15 Quaker petitions calling for the abolition of
the slave trade and slavery itself. In 1836, the House passed
the “gag rule” automatically tabling antislavery petitions
and thus preventing their reading. Despite the rule, cen-
sure motions, and threats of expulsion from the House, in
early 1837, Adams moved to present 21 petitions, some
from slaves. He assured his opponents that if expelled, he
would swift ly be reelected. Adams also struggled to win re-
peal of the rule by repeatedly arguing that it violated civil
liberties, particularly freedom of speech and petition, and
his right to represent his constituents. He fi nally won re-
peal in 1844.
At the urging of abolitionists in 1841, when Adams
was 73 and almost deaf, he agreed to represent the Afri-
cans captured on the schooner Amistad before the Supreme
Court. In his argument, Adams contended that his clients
were not slaves and therefore not property to be returned
to Spain pursuant to treaty, and he condemned the Van
Buren administration for disregarding the free Africans’
rights. More importantly, he asserted the applicability of
natural rights and the principles of the Declaration of Inde-
pendence. He also charged that it was the obligation of the
Court to secure the rights of all people. Although a majority
of justices owned or had owned slaves, the Court ruled for
the Africans. Adams would subsequently defeat two eff orts
in Congress to reimburse Spanish claimants.
As his antislavery activities increased, Adams received
numerous death threats from the South, and he concluded
that this demonstrated the depravity where slavery existed.
In the North, he became a hero and, because of his orations
in Congress, earned the moniker “Old Man Eloquent.” As
he rose to commence an address to the House in 1848, he
collapsed from a stroke. He died in the speaker’s chamber
two days later at the age of 80.
See also: Abolition, Slavery; Amistad


Russell Fowler
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