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An organization formed in 1816, at Princeton, N. J., and immediately reorganized at Washington, its principal object being to encourage the emancipation of slaves by obtaining for them a place without the United States to which they might emigrate. The scheme was also intended to relieve the South of the free black population with which it was burdened. Branches of the society were soon established in almost every State. Free negroes were first sent to Sierra Leone, later for a short time to Sherbrooke Island, and finally in 1821 a permanent location was purchased at Cape Mesurado. In 1847 this colony declared itself an independent republic under the name of Liberia. The society engaged the attention of many anti-slavery advocates until the rise of the Abolition party in 1831.