Source

Wiley Secondary Source

Publication Year: 1980

Wiley, Bell I., editor. Slaves No More: Letters from Liberia, 1833-1869. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1980.
PHS Call number: DT 633.2 .S55 1980

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Primary/Secondary
Secondary
Reading suggestions

See especially introduction, pages 1-11.

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Source note

Bell Wiley (1906-1980) was an American historian and white southerner who became known for his scholarship on the Civil War. He helped to debunk the popular myth that most slaves wanted to stay with their masters after emancipation, and became known for his scholarly focus on social history.

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Reading questions
  1. Who is the author of this source? Who is the intended audience? 
  2. How did the American Colonization Society obtain the land for colonization in what became Liberia? 
  3. Was colonization a valid option for African Americans after being freed from slavery? Why or why not? 
  4. How did most free African Americans feel about colonization as a solution to the problem of what freed slaves will do (and where they will live) after emancipation? 
  5. Did pro-colonization people believe in equal rights for freed African Americans? 
  6. Did anti-slavery people believe in equal rights for freed African Americans? 
  7. Why was colonization so appealing to many white Americans who were opposed to the institution of slavery?
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Source Set
The Colonization Movement (1830s)
Source type
Scholarly book
History Topics
Abolition and Anti-slavery
African American History
African History
Colonization Movement
Time Period
Slavery, Sectionalism, and Social Reform (1815-1861)