upon their class, thought of migrating to some country nearer to the
United States. Much was said about Central America, but British Guiana and
the West Indies proved to be the most inviting fields to the latter-day
Negro colonizationists. This idea was by no means new, for Jefferson in
his foresight had, in a letter to Governor Edward Coles, of Illinois, in
1814, shown the possibilities of colonization in the West Indies. He felt
that because Santo Domingo had become an independent Negro republic it
would offer a solution of the problem as to where the Negroes should be
colonized. In this way these islands would become a sort of safety valve
for the United States. He became more and more convinced that all the West
Indies would remain in the hands of the people of color, and a total
expulsion of the whites sooner or later would take place. It was high
time, he thought, that Americans should foresee the bloody scenes which
their children certainly, and possibly they themselves, would have to wade
through. [13]

The movement to the West Indies was accelerated by other factors. After
the emancipation in those islands in the thirties, there had for some
years been a dearth of labor. Desiring to enjoy their freedom and living
in a climate where there was not much struggle for life, the freedmen
either refused to work regularly or wandered about purposely from year to
year. The islands in which sugar had once played a conspicuous part as the
foundation of their industry declined and something had to be done to meet
this exigency. In the forties and fifties, therefore, there came to the
United States a number of labor agents whose aim was to set forth the
inviting aspect of the situation in the West Indies so as to induce free
Negroes to try their fortunes there. To this end meetings were held in
Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston and even in some of the
cities of the South, where these agents appealed to the free Negroes to
emigrate.[l4]