the development of the United States after the Revolution: "It was obvious to black leaders that their people were not meaningfully included in the new nation, particularly since the great majority of them were still slaves" (Stuckey, 1972, p. 3). There is evidence that a sense of black nationalism infused the slave population, but clearly it was in the North among "free" blacks where there was an opportunity for them to frame their thoughts into statements calling for a transformation of values and the creation of institutions to move black people from dependency to liberation (Stuckey, 1972, p. 5).
An early statement of black nationalism is found in The Ethiopian Manifesto, published by Robert Alan Young in 1829 with his own funds. This brief document contains the essential elements of black nationalism as Young reflects a deep concern over the place occupied by black people all over the world (Stuckey, 1972, p. 7). David Walker presented many more of the ideas of black nationalism in his Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World, also published in 1829; this document "contains the most all-embracing black nationalist formulation to appear in America during the nineteenth century" (Stuckey, 1972, p. 9).
Black nationalism during the nineteenth century was influenced by many developments and intellectual currents. The establishment of the American Colonization Society came early in the century and led to the formation of its colony, Liberia, which became independent in 1847. The passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850 led to a resurgence of black nationalism, and emigration schemes were offered by the American Colonization Society and other colonization societies. Africa was one site considered, but so was Haiti. The decade before the Civil War was the high-water mark of classical black nationalism. In the latter part of the century black nationalism was influenced by Darwinian science and by Victorian conceptions of ...