Professor Bjørn Southard discusses his book, Peculiar Rhetoric: Slavery, Freedom, and the African Colonization Movement. Prof. Southard outlines how the African Colonization Movement hoped to reach some middle ground between southern enslavers and northern abolitionists in order to solve the fears both had about a free black population in the US. While the Colonization idea was supported many by wealthy whites, free blacks actually interacted with the logistics and relocation to Liberia. We end our conversation discussing Lincoln’s complicated relationship to and thinking around the Colonialization project.
Bjørn Stillion Southard is an Associate Professor and Director of Debate at the University of Georgia. He researches and teaches about the history of oratory, particularly as it relates to race.
