Mercy Scholar to Explore Controversial 19th - Century Effort to Resettle Black Americans in Africa

Mercy Assistant Professor of history Robert Murray, author of a new book about a controversial and little-known chapter of American history, will host a Zoom webinar to explore the topic on Sunday, May 23, at 2:00 p.m.

The webinar, sponsored by the Ardsley Historical Society, will delve into the American Colonization Society (ACS), a group of primarily white Americans who, in the 19th century, began advocating for free and formerly enslaved American Blacks to resettle in Africa. The webinar, entitled “The American Colonization Society—A Challenge to E Pluribus Unum,” will consider the history of the ACS, which did not disband until the 1960s, and the aftermath of its colonization efforts in both America and Africa.

In a letter to the Rivertowns Enterprise, Ardsley Historical Society director Gary S. Rappaport described the ACS as “an unusual mix of opponents of slavery and enslavers. Abolitionist ACS members believed resettlement offered African Americans an opportunity to escape racism… and form their own homogenous nation where they could enjoy freedom and citizenship… Pro-slavery supporters considered resettlement a means to remove those who might threaten the institution of slavery.”

Murray, who is chair of Mercy’s Humanities Department, has written extensively about the Society, whose members included such notable white Americans as Francis Scott Key and Daniel Webster. Most recently, in his 2021 book, Atlantic Passages: Race, Mobility and Liberian Colonization, Murray traces the relationship between the United States and its African colony in Liberia before the American Civil War. Other writings have explored how Black Americans navigated race on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean following the ACS’s creation of the colony of Liberia. A scholarly article by Murray, which won the prestigious Ralph D. Gray Prize in 2019, told the story of a Liberian settler who was the first African American graduate of an American medical school.

The webinar is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Visit the Ardsley Historical Society to register, or read their press release for more in-depth information.