provided
for their reception," said Randolph, "and a mode of sending them
hence, there were [sic] hundreds, nay thousands of citizens" who would
manumit their slaves.[279] Randolph's characterization of the free
black was generally approved by the leaders in this movement. Caldwell
used "degraded" and "ignorant" in describing this class of people.
Mills said: "It will transfer to the coast of Africa the blessings of
religion and civilization; and Ethiopia will soon stretch out her
hands to God."[280]

One finds it difficult to explain how the colonizationists could argue
that one of their objects was to remove a dangerous element from our
population and at the same time take civilization and Christianity to
Africa. No doubt it was expected that the Negroes who attended the
schools, established principally by Mills, would become efficient
leaders of their fellows. It is highly probable also that the
arguments were designed for different sections of the country and
different classes of people--to remove the dangerous element would
make a strong appeal to the slaveholder and the South, for it was
believed that the free black contaminated and ruined the slave; to
civilize and Christianize Africa would appeal to churchmen and
religious bodies, and this argument could be used in the North. To
return to Africa people who could contribute to her betterment;
indeed, to return to Africa the descendants of her enslaved sons and
daughters improved by contact with the civilization of the whites
would be a recompense to that continent for the wrongs perpetrated,
during a period of two hundred years, on her population. It was only
America's moral obligation, said the colonizationists, to return the
black population to Africa.

Another object the deportationists had in mind was to stop the slave
trade. They believed that the existence of a settlement in Africa
would deter the slaveholder from securing his cargo in human beings.
It would also furnish the opportunity needed to develop a commerce in
legitimate articles of trade between Africa and America and other
parts of the world. It was also hoped by the leaders of this
deportation movement to remove the great obstacle to the abolition of
slavery. Now that provision was made for the freedmen the slaveholder
felt at liberty to manumit his slaves. To quote Mills again: "It is
confidently believed by many of our best and wisest men, that, if the
plan proposed succeeds, it will ultima