SCCHGS Historical Records of the American Colonization Society

The American Colonization Society [ACS], founded in 1816, funded the establishment of the Liberian Colony in Africa through fundraising by private US citizens belonging to Society chapters in every American state. The ACS’s goal was to provide free blacks and manumitted slaves a society in which freedom and equality could be realized as opposed to the discrimination faced in both the northern and southern United States of America. 

The ACS donated its vast collection of records to the Library of Congress upon its dissolution in 1964. The Society’s papers are a treasure trove of genealogical documents identifying ancestors in a specific time and place—including women of antislavery sentiment who donated funds yearly, if not quarterly or monthly. ACS records are in university, state, and national repositories. Learn about the ACS and how its records are of use to genealogists.

Presented by Sandra Schaad of the Santa Clara County Historical and Genealogical Society.  Please see their webpage for registration information.