Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/381

 to the Gaboon, English factories and agents are established, for commercial purposes and for the suppression of the slave-trade. These establishments are supported by the government; and its authorized commissioners enter into negotiations with the powerful chiefs cf the interior on the subject of the slave-trade. The Danish ports on the coast have recently been sold to the English. A treaty has been formed with the powerful king of Dahomey, whose chief revenue was derived from incursions against his neighbors and seizing and selling them to the slavers. He had kept an army of men and women trained for the purpose, and his victims numbered about nine thousand annually. An annual stipend from England supplies the deficiency in his revenue, and the trade is abolished in his dominions. Human sacrifices have also been to a great extent abolished in the two great states of Dahomey and Ashantee, and both are opened to missionary influences.

The scheme of colonizing the free people of color was agitated in the United States shortly after the close of the revolutionary war. Dr. Thornton, of Washington, in 1783, suggested the establishment of a colony in Africa. Mr. Jefferson, as secretary of state, made an application to the Sierra Leone company, but without success. The Portuguese government was sounded for the acquisition of territory in South America for the purpose. The legislature of Virginia, in 1800, 1805, and 1816 discussed the subject. The Rev. Dr. Finley, of New Jersey, matured a plan for the purpose, and proceeded to Washington. On the 25th of December, 1816, a meeting was called, over which Henry Clay presided, and Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford, Dr. Finley and others were elected vice-presidents. The American Colonization Society was formed. "Its objects is, to promote and execute a plan for colonizing, with their consent, the free people of color residing in our country, either in Africa, or such other places as Congress shall deem expedient; "to prepare the way for the interference of the government by proving that a colony can be established and maintained without the opposition of the natives, that an important commerce might be thus established, and the slave-trade in consequence discouraged. The gradual emancipation of slaves, as favored by Jefferson and others in earlier days, was discussed. The work of forming an African nation in Africa, with republican institutions and Christian influences, was commenced.

In 1817, two agents were sent by the society to examine the western coast for a suitable place for a colony. They selected the island of Sherboro, about sixty miles S. S. E. from Sierra Leone, and then sailed for the United States. Mr. Mills, one of the agents, died on the passage.

On the 3d of March, 1819, Congress passed an act by which the President was authorized to restore to their own country any Africans captured from American or foreign vessels attempting to introduce them into the United States; and to provide, by the establishment of a suitable government agency on the coast, for their subsistence and comfort. It was determined to make the site of the government agency, that of the colonial also, and to incorporate into the settlement all the Africans delivered by our men-of-war to the government agent.