Searching for the Promised Land
Many Black men and women embraced emigration to Africa as the most promising path to follow. As the American War of Independence ended and slavery remained alive in the newly created United States, enslaved, freed, and free Black persons who had fought alongside the British relocated in other parts of the British Empire and Sierra Leone.
Later efforts in the independent United States led thousands of emigrants to resettle in Liberia as well. In Brazil, many dozens of freedpeople were deported to West Africa after Brazilian authorities dismantled the Malê Revolt of 1835. But thousands of other Black men, women, and children took the same difficult path back to Africa. Most of them settled in coastal towns of the Bight of Benin.The journey back to Africa was a difficult one. Many of these exiles died not long after reaching African shores. Still, many Black men, women, and children chose to undertake this risky relocation journey rather than continue to experience the rampant racism that prevented freed African-born peoples and their descendants from owning land and having access to education and full citizenship. Although the exodus to Africa did not deliver the promised land to freedpeople, as we will see in the following epilogue, the great majority of Black men, women, and children who decided to stay in the Americas also encountered huge challenges as they continued to be confronted with segregation and economic exclusion.