The concept of "repatriation" of people of African ancestry who had unwillingly been brought to the Americas, was initially developed in Great Britain by well-meaning but misguided white abolitionists like Granville Sharp and David Barclay (the latter of Barclays Bank) in the 18th century. This led to spectacular failures in West Africa due to undercapitalization and poor planning.

In the following generation in the U.S., once again well-meaning but poorly educated white Americans who were sympathetic to the cause of abolition of all human chattel slavery decided that Black people of African origin, because they were not of the same capacity and abilities as whites, could not be assimilated into white society, and therefore would need their own lands and governments back on the African continent. Among those of this mindset were Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. But there was never any intention of whites, the proponents of "manifest destiny," to return with Blacks to Liberia in any capacity, so the concept of manifest destiny in Africa would have been stillborn.

In the U.S. it was primarily through the writings and speeches of Frederick Douglass that the concept of repatriation of Blacks to Africa was finally pointed out as hopelessly racist and a bankrupt concept. Douglass correctly pointed out that "my people built this country, and we have no desire to leave the nation of our birth to go elsewhere." Douglass, born in Maryland in slavery, had successfully escaped and ultimately was able to purchase his own freedom, and that of his family. He would advise Lincoln throughout the American Civil War, and Lincoln gradually came to adopt Douglass's point of view in the main, leading to the Emancipation Proclamation, and more importantly to sponsoring the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the U.S. Constitution.