Maryland State Colonization Society papers, 1827-1894 (inclusive), [microform]

31 reels.

English

Founded in 1817 as an auxiliary of the Washington-based American Colonization Society, the Maryland State Colonization Society's primary functions were to gather funds for the parent society and to recruit colonists for the American Society's settlement, Liberia, founded on the West African coast in 1822. Ten years later, the Maryland Society decided to chart a course independent of the American Society by founding a separate colony for Maryland's free blacks, called "Maryland in Liberia." Conflicts between the colony and native tribes forced the union of Maryland in Liberia with the Republic of Liberia in 1857. The Maryland State Colonization Society ceased active colonization efforts in 1863 and disbanded in 1902.

The papers consist of correspondence, minutes, financial records, records of manumission and emigration, reports of colonial agents, pamphlets and books on the colonization movement, copies of the Maryland Colonization Journal and the Liberia Herald, and census records of Maryland in Liberia. The materials shed light on race relations and socioeconomic conditions in antebellum America and are a source of information on the founding of Liberia.

Archives or Manuscripts / Microforms

June 01, 2002