Programs

Is Africa My Home: The Debate about the Colonization of Maryland Blacks in the 19th Century

In 1816, a group of statesmen, clergymen, and others from the North and South founded the American Colonization Society, with the purpose of settling free people of color in Africa. A Maryland auxiliary helped about 1,200 African Americans settle on the west coast of Africa at Cape Palmas. This lecture by Debra Newman Ham provides an opportunity to explore issues of race in the antebellum United States, as well as to examine reactions of African Americans to colonization. Requires large world map and globe, if available. Adult, high school, and middle school audiences.

Debra Newman Ham is Professor of History at Morgan State University where she teaches African, African-American, Archival, and Public History courses. She received her Ph.D. in African History from Howard University, her M.A. in African History from Boston University, and her B.A. in History from Howard University. She served as curator of the NAACP Papers at the Library of Congress from 1986 to 1995.