The World Colonization Made: The Racial Geography of Early American Empire by Brandon Mills (review)

In his thought-provoking book The World Colonization Made: The Racial Geography of Early American Empire, Brandon Mills repositions our understanding of the African colonization movement within the early history of American foreign policy and American empire. While Mills compares the colonization of Black Americans in Africa to the policy of the British, particularly in the Sierra Leone colony, he argues that it is Indian removal, westward expansion, and white settler colonialism in North America that provide the better context. Thus, the role of the American Colonization Society (ACS) in the early and mid-nineteenth century and its intention to remove free Black people to Africa should be seen as part of what Mills maintains was the effort to remap the racial geography of the United States during the early republic. It was within the prevailing view of American republicanism that a vision of a benevolent empire emerged, which allowed "for the expansion of liberty through racially separate regimes of self-governance for whites, African Americans, and Native Americans" (p. 1).

Mills begins his study in the Revolutionary era with ideas connected to antislavery movements and efforts to resettle emancipated African Americans west of the Appalachian Mountains. Incipient projects to send free Black people to Africa emerged in this period, particularly in the British-controlled areas of Sierra Leone, but expelling them to western territories dominated the white American imaginary. In this light, African American removal was closely connected to American expansionism. Mills notes that free Black people largely rejected African colonization, but it remained central to white concerns about the future of slavery and race relations in the early republic. Along with the establishment of the ACS, an embryonic American foreign policy emerged grounded in a "racial republicanism" that promoted the belief that nonwhite peoples could govern themselves, albeit within a racial matrix of white supremacy (p. 5). As the Monroe Doctrine took shape, this racial geography defined American aspirations and designs of empire in North America, Latin America, and the Caribbean. From this perspective, African colonization was an Atlantic extension of Indian removal policies, white settler colonialism, and manifest destiny. Altogether, white Americans envisioned an empire that could manage, if not resolve, domestic racial tensions. For these reasons, African colonization remained popular among white political leaders until the Civil War, when emancipation reframed ideals of the United States as a racial democracy. Nevertheless, colonization's close ties to foreign policy and racial republicanism served as a template for overseas ambitions in the Caribbean, Hawaii, and the Pacific as the United States absorbed nonwhite peoples in an expanding American empire later in the nineteenth century.

Initially, one might question why we should consider the significance of the nineteenth-century African colonization movement, as it had limited appeal and was largely unsuccessful in its intentions to remove African Americans from the United States. Nevertheless, its persistent attraction among major political leaders who believed it would address American race relations deserves our attention. After all, President Abraham Lincoln pursued colonization, whether to Africa or Latin America, up until the eve of the Emancipation Proclamation. For this reason, the resilience of African colonization in the white imaginary demands serious study. In this regard, The World Colonization Madeis a major contribution to the scholarship on African colonization movements, westward expansion, and American foreign policy. It reinforces the centrality of race to American empire-building and reminds us of the importance of African colonization to American domestic politics. Free Black people may have largely rejected colonization, but the idea remained resilient among white Americans in constructing the racial geography of the nation.