---
title: "Colored Conventions — AP African American Studies Definition"
description: "Colored Conventions were Black-led political meetings starting in the 1830s where free African Americans debated identity, naming, and rights. Key for Topic 2.10."
canonical: "https://fiveable.me/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/colored-conventions"
type: "key-term"
subject: "AP African American Studies"
unit: "Unit 2"
---

# Colored Conventions — AP African American Studies Definition

## Definition

Colored Conventions were political meetings organized by African Americans beginning in the 1830s across the United States and Canada, where free Black people foregrounded shared heritage and debated questions of identity and self-identification, a core example of self-naming in AP African American Studies Topic 2.10.

## What It Is

Colored Conventions were organized political gatherings that [free African Americans](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-2/13-resistance-and-revolts-in-the-united-states/study-guide/Eb17rb9yzYu279TU "fv-autolink") began holding in the 1830s, meeting in cities across the United States and Canada. These weren't casual get-togethers. Delegates came to debate the big questions facing [Black communities](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-2/23-the-civil-war-and-black-communities/study-guide/izqwf48keJf083W0 "fv-autolink"), including what they should call themselves. Should it be "African," "Colored American," or something else? The name of the conventions themselves reflects the answer many delegates chose in that moment.

The timing matters. After the 1808 ban on international slave trading, the share of African-born people in the Black population dropped, and a generation of American-born Black people came of age. At the same time, the white-led [American Colonization Society](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/american-colonization-society "fv-autolink") was pushing to remove free Black people to Africa. Many free Black people responded by rejecting the term "African" and emphasizing their American identity, and Colored Conventions became the public stage where those debates played out. They are the clearest example of African Americans actively defining themselves rather than accepting labels imposed by others.

## Why It Matters

Colored Conventions live in **[Unit 2](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-2 "fv-autolink"): [Freedom](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-2/21-legacies-of-resistance-in-african-american-art-and-photography/study-guide/i6dgSRQeJckJJ4Qe "fv-autolink"), Enslavement, and Resistance**, specifically **Topic 2.10: Black Pride, Identity, and the Question of Naming**. They directly support learning objective **2.10.A**, which asks you to explain how changing demographics and popular debates about identity influenced the terms African Americans used to identify themselves in the nineteenth century and beyond. The conventions are your concrete evidence for that objective. When the exam asks how Black people responded to the colonization movement or why naming preferences shifted from "African" to "Colored American," Colored Conventions are the institution where those responses actually happened. They also set up a through-line you can trace across the whole course, since the practice of self-naming continues all the way to the adoption of "African American" in 1988.

## Connections

### [American Colonization Society (Unit 2)](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/american-colonization-society)

The ACS was founded by white leaders who wanted to exile [free Black people](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-2/14-freedom-womens-rights-and-education/study-guide/bp2sHi0HFb0u4pX4 "fv-autolink") to Africa. Colored Conventions are the direct counter-move. By organizing politically and claiming an American identity, free Black people rejected the premise that they didn't belong in the United States. Think of the two as opposing answers to the same question about whether Black people had a future in America.

### [International slave trading ban of 1808 (Unit 2)](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/international-slave-trading-ban-of-1808)

The 1808 ban shrank the percentage of African-born people in the Black population, which is the demographic shift behind the naming debate. A generation born in America had less direct connection to Africa, so by the time conventions began in the 1830s, many delegates preferred "[Colored American](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-2/10-black-pride-identity-and-the-question-of-naming/study-guide/sCMCOOHW7DRtM6jH "fv-autolink")" over "African." The ban is the cause; the conventions are where the effect became visible.

### The evolution of ethnonyms, from "Colored American" to "African American" (Units 2 and beyond)

Colored Conventions kick off a continuity the course traces for over 150 years. The same self-naming process that produced "Colored American" in the 1830s later produced "Afro-American," "Black," and "African American" (formally embraced in 1988). If an exam question asks what the use of multiple ethnonyms reflects, the answer is this ongoing tradition of [self-definition](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-3/11-the-new-negro-movement-and-the-harlem-renaissance/study-guide/3cv7itK8BhGU4iG4 "fv-autolink") that the conventions started.

## On the AP Exam

This term shows up most often in multiple-choice questions, usually in two forms. The first is straight identification, like asking what term describes political meetings where African Americans discussed shared heritage and identity beginning in the 1830s. The second is conceptual, asking what process African Americans were engaging in when they held these conventions. The answer the exam wants is self-identification or self-naming, the act of a community defining itself on its own terms. Continuity questions are also common, like ones tracing the shift from "African" to "Colored American" in the 1820s-1830s through the adoption of "African American" in 1988. No released FRQ has used this term verbatim, but it works well as evidence in short-answer or project responses about Black resistance, identity formation, or responses to the colonization movement. The key move is connecting the conventions to their causes (the 1808 ban and the ACS) rather than just naming them.

## Colored Conventions vs American Colonization Society

These are easy to mix up because both involve organized responses to the growing free Black population in the early 1800s, but they came from opposite sides. The American Colonization Society was founded by white leaders who wanted to remove free Black people to Africa. Colored Conventions were organized by African Americans themselves, and they pushed back on colonization by asserting an American identity and the right to self-define. One was about exclusion imposed from outside; the other was self-determination from within.

## Key Takeaways

- Colored Conventions were political meetings organized by African Americans starting in the 1830s, held across the United States and Canada.
- The conventions hosted debates about identity and self-identification, including which terms African Americans should use to describe themselves.
- They emerged in response to demographic change after the 1808 international slave trading ban and to the American Colonization Society's push to exile free Black people to Africa.
- Many free Black people rejected the term "African" in favor of "Colored American" to emphasize their American identity, which is why the conventions carried that name.
- On the exam, Colored Conventions are the go-to example of self-naming, a continuity that runs from the 1830s to the adoption of "African American" in 1988.
- The conventions support learning objective 2.10.A in Topic 2.10, Black Pride, Identity, and the Question of Naming.

## FAQs

### What were the Colored Conventions in AP African American Studies?

They were political meetings African Americans organized beginning in the 1830s across the United States and Canada, where free Black people debated shared heritage, identity, and what to call themselves. They appear in Topic 2.10 of Unit 2.

### Were Colored Conventions part of the American Colonization Society?

No, they were essentially the opposite. The American Colonization Society was a white-led group trying to remove free Black people to Africa, while Colored Conventions were Black-led meetings that rejected colonization and asserted an American identity.

### Why did African Americans stop using the term 'African' in the 1820s and 1830s?

After the 1808 international slave trading ban, the share of African-born people in the Black population declined, and the American Colonization Society's exile campaign made the label feel risky. Many free Black people adopted "Colored American" instead to emphasize they belonged in the United States.

### How are Colored Conventions different from the international slave trading ban of 1808?

The 1808 ban was a federal law that cut off legal importation of enslaved Africans and shifted the population toward American-born Black people. Colored Conventions, starting in the 1830s, were the Black-led political response to that demographic shift, where the resulting identity debates actually took place.

### What process were African Americans engaging in at the Colored Conventions?

Self-identification, or self-naming. Delegates were actively defining their community's identity and choosing their own labels rather than accepting terms imposed by white society, a process that continued through the adoption of "African American" in 1988.

## Related Study Guides

- [2.10 Black Pride, Identity, and the Question of Naming](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-2/10-black-pride-identity-and-the-question-of-naming/study-guide/sCMCOOHW7DRtM6jH)

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