The first organized immigration of freeborn Black Americans to
Africa from the United States departed New York harbor on a
journey to Freetown, Sierra Leone, in West Africa.

The immigration was largely the work of the American Colonization Society, a U.S. organization founded in 1816 by Robert Finley to
return formerly enslaved African people to Africa.

However, the expedition was also partially funded by the U.S.
Congress, which in 1819 had appropriated $100,000 to be used
in returning displaced Africans, illegally brought to the United
States after the abolishment of the slave trade in 1808, to Africa.