Colonization was explicitly designed to strengthen slavery by removing free Black people

Evidence

Into the antebellum era, a big tent of enslavers and centrist anti-slavery reformers—both inspired by Jefferson—came to see colonization as a way to resist those enslaved persons and free abolitionists pressing for the immediate end of slavery. Enslavers came to favor the idea of colonizing all free Black people out of the country—to better control the restive population of enslaved people. The minutes from the founding meeting of the American Colonization Society in 1816 record that Virginia congressman John Randolph argued that colonization would “materially tend to secure” slavery, casting off those free Black people whose presence incited “mischief” and “discontent” among the enslaved. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1257

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: the founding documents of the American Colonization Society as primary source evidence that ‘reform’ can function as reaction — is there a general pattern where progressive-sounding programs consolidate hierarchy?
• XREF: Directly relevant to the reading purpose’s task of separating reframing argument from contested claims; this is a specific empirical claim (founding minutes) supporting the thesis that anti-Blackness, not benevolent reform, shaped American institutions.
• SHARE: Send to anyone working on antebellum history or on how ‘reform’ rhetoric masks reaction — Randolph’s blunt admission that colonization would ‘secure’ slavery is a striking primary source.