In addition to the details listed above, the members of
the American Colonization Society believed in property rights, and that slaves were,
in fact, property. In this vein, the ACS pursued a strategy of "compensated
emancipation", meaning that they believed slaveowners should be paid for their property,
and then the colonization of Africa with purchased slaves could begin. To them, it was
a perfect solution: slaveowners got paid, and slaves were freed. It was also
shortsighted and naive, but that's another thing.
The
American Anti-Slavery Society, on the other hand, was not much interested in compromise,
nor resettlement in Africa. It argued for complete, uncompensated and immediate
abolition of slavery. Led by the firebrand, hardcore abolitionist and publisher of
The Liberator, William Lloyd Garrison, the AAS held ACS members in
some contempt, and had little tolerance for half measures like
colonization.
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