Secondary Sources
Millions of Europeans were coming into America as thousands of black Americans were returning to their ancestor’s homeland Africa, the colony founded as Liberia. The motives of return were widespread and varied even within race. White Southerners mainly wanted blacks to leave the United States because as abolition came closer they realized the only thing worse than not having slaves was having ex-slaves intermingled in their communities. Therefore, freedom was granted to some slaves under the agreement that with their new liberties they would leave the United States. Other white folks, whom were mostly from the north, wanted to travel abroad to Africa along with black Americans to spread the Lord’s work to African ‘savages’ whom were not yet enlightened. Black Americans wanted to go to Africa for the obvious reason, freedom but also because they wanted to spread Christianity. Some Africans wanted to emigrate because it meant a return to their ancestors land. Regardless of the reasoning there are numerous primary sources that serve as accounts for motives along with historical texts in the form of secondary sources.
The balance of secondary and primary sources will be crucial in crafting my thesis. For secondary sources I will use Journey of Hope; the Back-to-Africa Movement in Arkansas in the Late 1800s, by Kennth C. Barnes and An African Republic; Black and White Virginians in the Making of Liberia. I will use these sources along with my primary sources to illustrate the naive perceptions of Africa that were possessed by both Whites and Blacks as the emigrated to Africa. Racism within Africa as Americans moved to Liberia to colonize was not only between Whites and Africans but it was also between Black Americans and Africans. My thesis will be unique in that the secondary sources are more focused on the movements that led Americans to Africa in the late 1800s but neglect the social aspects of colonization. With the help of primary sources, specifically, Slaves No More; Letters from Liberia 1833-1869, edited by Bell I. Wiley, I will find first hand accounts of superiority between blacks within Liberia. I will take a sociological viewpoint in examining why this occurs.