The Peculiar Solution: The American Colonization Society and Antislavery Sentiment in the South, 1820-1860
As for the extent of antislavery sentiment in the South, there are reasons to believe that many white Southerners doubted slavery's morality. First, the attributes displayed by manumitted emigrants---the talents and intelligence which led ACS slaveholders to reject proslavery arguments---were no different than the faculties exhibited by other bondpersons. Second, white Southerners often applauded and aided ACS manumissions. Third, Southern legislators and judges evinced liberal attitudes toward ACS emancipations. Whatever colonization's logistical limitations, the ACS's failures cannot be blamed on resistance from white Southerners. To the extent that colonization was an antislavery endeavor---and the Society's record is admittedly ambiguous---it encountered far more approbation than opposition.
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign