My name is Ousmane Power-Greene and I'm an Associate Professor in the History Department at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. Here is my bio page at Clark University: (https://www.clarku.edu/faculty/facultybio.cfm?id=685)
What did the ACS think about the (native) Liberians? Surely they understood that it wasn't an uninhabited place. Did they not anticipate conflict?
Hello Dr. Power-Greene and thank you for taking the time to do this, I have a few questions for you as this topic is quite interesting to me.
What do you contribute to Rev. Richard Allen's change in mind over the ACS, initially he was quite supportive of Colonization "Schemes" but later shifted his views.
The power and usefulness of the ACS waxed and waned over the decades of the nineteenth century as African-Americans chose to either stay and fight or flee the country. When do you consider the organization to be moribund?
Hello Dr. Power-Greene, a pleasure to have you here. :)
My question is regarding African-American support for the endeavours of the American Colonization Society. Was there support amongst free blacks for free black colonization in Africa? If there was no to little support, why did the ACS keep pushing for something that the free blacks did not want?
To what extent did anti-colonization people of color describe themselves as 'American' and claim an American identity? Did this have any effect on African American identity later in the century?
Hello Dr. Power-Greene! Thanks for your time! I know that Henry McNeal Turner was a proponent of African colonization during his tenure as bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal church, and that this was controversial (but not much more than that.) Was there a significant difference between religious and non-religious proponents of colonization in terms of methodology, reactions to them, etc?
Thanks for taking the time to answer questions, Dr. Power-Greene. Why did black Americans stay with the United States when they had so many reasons not to? I mean, white Americans were extraordinarily hostile at times, black Americans faced legal and social discrimination ─ why were they willing to stay?
Thanks for taking the time to do this.
How was the idea of leaving America and colonizing other land initially received by the free black community, before any actual colonies had been founded?