During the American Revolution the British government promised freedom to enslaved people who escaped into their lines. About 3,000 of these “Black Loyalists,” including Virginians, were resettled in Nova Scotia; others went to London or British colonies in the Caribbean.

Thomas Jefferson published Notes on the State of Virginia and in it proposed the idea of colonization. Read an essay on the Notes and the Colonization movement here

Constitution of the Virginia Society for promoting the Abolition of Slavery (Virginia Gazette)

Benjamin Banneker wrote to Thomas Jefferson to critique his views on race in Notes on the State of Virginia, and Jefferson replied to Banneker. Both letters were published together in 1792.

The British established the colony of Sierra Leone on the west coast of Africa, in part to offer a new home to Black Loyalists unhappily resettled in London. Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia, where they were treated poorly, were also offered resettlement in Sierra Leone. About half, nearly 1200, migrated and established Freetown.

Gabriel's conspiracy to attack slavery in Richmond and initiate a wider rebellion was thwarted by informers and a torrential thunderstorm.

Thomas Jefferson/James Monroe correspondence about Gabriel’s Conspiracy.

St. Domingue proposed as a home for free Blacks and enslaved people deported for rebelliousness.

St. Domingue won independence in 1804 after an insurrection of enslaved people beginning in 1791, adopting the island’s original name of Haiti. The fear of insurrection in the United States was one of the catalysts for voluntary African colonization.

Paul Cuffe and nine other Black seamen sailed Cuffe’s flagship, the Traveller, to Sierra Leone to explore the potential for African American migration to the West Coast of Africa. While there, he accepted an invitation from English abolitionists to visit London and other cities. By the time he left, the Liverpool Mercury published a favorable “Memoir of Captain Paul Cuffee.”

During the War of 1812, about 4000 individuals, mostly from the Chesapeake region of Virginia and Maryland, or the Georgia coast, escaped slavery to accept the promise of freedom in the British lines. In 1814 British military authorities asked them to choose military service or resettlement in another British Colony. More than 1600 chose Nova Scotia; others, New Brunswick and Trinidad.

After delays due to the War of 1812, Paul Cuffe sailed to Sierra Leone with thirty-eight colonists. His death in 1817 ended his plans to make one voyage per year and return to the United States with trade goods from West Africa.

American Colonization Society (ACS) established in Washington, D.C.

Frederick County Auxiliary of the ACS established (first local auxiliary)

Loudoun County Auxiliary of the ACS established.

ACS sent its first emigrants, including Virginians, on the Elizabeth to Sherbro Island in the British colony of Sierra Leone. The death rate was high and the British governor allowed them to stay in a more healthy inland location until land was obtained for an ACS colony.

Frederick County Auxiliary Annual Report makes the case for ending slavery with the help of the colonization movement.

Many other ACS auxiliaries formed in this decade. Some were short-lived.

Lott Cary and Colin Teage, who purchased their freedom and were ordained Baptist ministers in First African Church, Richmond, emigrated with their families to Liberia on board the Nautilus. The following year Cary founded the first Baptist church in Liberia, now known as Providence Baptist Church of Monrovia.

ACS representative Dr. Eli Ayres negotiated with the Dey and Bassa peoples of Cape Mesurado and purchased land for the settlement.

Liberia established as a settlement when survivors of Sherbro Island moved to Cape Mesurado. The ACS governed the colony through its representative, Jehudi Ashmun, who replaced Ayres. The settlement was initially named Christopolis and, later, Monrovia.

Richmond-Manchester Auxiliary established with William Crane as manager. Alexandria Auxiliary also established.

Tensions between emigrants and the ACS representative grew until they forced Jehudi Ashmun to leave. He returned after negotiations that gave colonists more local control and put some restraints on ACS agents.

Loudoun County Manumission and Emigration Society formed by members of the Goose Creek Friends Meeting in Lincoln, Virginia.

Constitution, Government, and Digest of the Laws of Liberia as Confirmed and Established by the Board of Mangers [sic] of the American Colonization Society published. The ACS representative still wielded authority but operated under the common law. Christopolis was re-named Monrovia after American president James Monroe, a supporter of colonization. The wider colony was officially named Liberia.

Lynchburg Colonization Auxiliary established.

Charles Force, a Black printer from Boston, established the Liberia Herald using a printing press that abolitionist Charles Tappan donated to the ACS, but he died after only three issues.

Lott Cary elected vice agent of the colony of Liberia.

Maryland Colonization Society founded as a branch of the ACS.

Debate between colonizationist William H. Fitzhugh and proslavery critic Judge John W. Nash, Controversy between Caius Gracchus and Opimius, in Reference to the American Colonization Society (Georgetown, D.C.)

Vice agent Lott Cary served as acting agent of the colony from March until his sudden death in November.

The Virginia Colonization Society was established from the Richmond-Manchester Auxiliary, becoming independent of the ACS. It was more conservative than the national society. Individuals in Virginia could still interact directly with the ACS and its agents.

Frederick and Falmouth Female Auxiliary established by Mary Berkeley Minor Blackford.

David Walker published Appeal... to the Coloured Citizens of the World that included a pointed critique of African colonization.

The ship Harriet sailed from Norfolk, carrying 132 Virginia emigrants, mostly free Blacks from Richmond and Petersburg, including Joseph Jenkins Roberts, age 20, who later became governor and president of Liberia.

John Brown Russwurm, co-editor of Freedom’s Journal in New York, emigrated to Liberia in 1829 and edited the Liberia Herald from 1830 to 1834. James Cephas Minor, a formerly enslaved printer’s apprentice from Fredericksburg, Va., printed the Herald in Monrovia.

Inaugural National Negro Convention at Bethel AME Church in Philadelphia published their disapproval of African colonization in their “Address to the Free Persons of Colour of these United States,” signed by Rev. Richard Allen, President.

Mars and Jesse Lucas in Liberia exchanged letters with Albert and Townsend Heaton in Loudoun County, Virginia. (Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg)

Nat Turner's Revolt against slavery in Southhampton, Virginia.

Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison began publishing The Liberator, denouncing colonization and advocating immediate, unconditional emancipation.

William Lloyd Garrison published his critique, Thoughts on African Colonization.

The Virginia Legislature’s Debate over proposals to gradually end slavery in the Commonwealth.

Thomas R. Dew published a pamphlet justifying slavery, Review of the Debate in the Virginia Legislature of 1831 and 1832.

Act of the Virginia General Assembly to appropriate $18,000 towards sending free Blacks in Virginia to Liberia over five years. The $30 per person allotment did not adequately cover expenses and little of it was used.

Maryland in Liberia established at Cape Palmas by the Maryland State Colonization Society. Emigrants mostly from Maryland and Virginia settled there. In 1836 John Brown Russworm became the first mixed-race governor.

Samson Ceasar sent letters from Liberia to David S. Haselden and Henry F. Westfall of Buckhannon, Virginia. (University of Virginia)

The Virginia Colonization Society was denied funding from the General Assembly for a proposed New Virginia settlement in Liberia “to be settled by free people of color, including manumitted slaves.” Thereafter, the VCS concentrated on obtaining state support only for emigration of those already free.

The Commonwealth of Liberia was formed, consolidating settlements established by the ACS, the Virginia Colonization Society, and the Quaker Young Men’s Society of Pennsylvania, and adopted a new Constitution.

Joseph Jenkins Roberts, from Virginia, a trader and effective military commander in Liberia, became the first lieutenant governor of the Commonwealth.

Page family members in Liberia exchanged letters with Charles W. and Sarah Andrews in Jefferson County. (Appomattox Courthouse National Historical Park, Duke University Special Collections Library, and Virginia Historical Society)

Governor Thomas Buchanan died in office and Joseph Jenkins Roberts became the first Black governor of the Commonwealth.

The Mississippi settlement joined the Commonwealth of Liberia.

The Liberia Herald (1842-1857) continued publication.

“Virginia in Africa” settlement in Liberia proposed by “Anonymous Virginian” in the African Repository with an appeal to raise $5,000. Within two years Virginia was established north of Monrovia, but remained small.

The British government and indigenous and foreign traders protested paying custom duties to the ACS, a private organization, but they were the main source of revenue for Liberia. Governor Roberts recommended forming an independent republic that maintained ties with the ACS. In October, the Americo-Liberian colonists voted, in a referendum, for independence.

Liberia issued their Declaration of Independence and became the first independent republic in Africa.

The ACS ceded all of its land holdings in Africa to the Republic of Liberia provided that the government continues to provide the customary amount of land for emigrants and allocates ten percent of proceeds from the sale of public lands for schools and other educational purposes.

The Liberian Constitution was ratified and the first elections were held.

Joseph Jenkins Roberts was elected president of Liberia. First Lady Jane Rose Waring Roberts was also from Virginia; the couple had married in Liberia in 1836.

England became the first country to recognize Liberian independence.

The General Assembly appropriated $30,000 for free Black emigration but limited the payments to $25 per person. They placed an annual tax of $1 on free Black males between the ages of twenty-one and fifty-five to raise the balance.

Liberia College was founded (now University of Liberia).

The Virginia legislature appropriated funds and doubled the allotment to $50 for any free Black Virginian sent to Liberia. It created a Colonization Board to oversee the program and required proof in the form of a will, deed of manumission, or registration to show that the individual was born free or had received legal emancipation in Virginia before April 6, 1853.

Maryland in Liberia declared independence from the state colonization society with Harper as its capital, becoming the Republic of Maryland but still called Maryland in Liberia.

After four successive terms, President Joseph Jenkins Roberts declined to run and his former vice-president, Stephen Allen Benson, born in Maryland, USA, was elected to succeed him. Benson also served four terms.

Philip Slaughter published The Virginian History of American Colonization.

Photographers Augustus Washington and Rufus Anson made portraits of prominent Liberians.

The Republic of Maryland asked Liberia to render military aid in a war with Grebu and Kru peoples, who resisted colonists’ attempts to control trade. The joint campaign was victorious and led Marylanders to seek annexation by Liberia.

Watercolor drawing of the Liberian Senate.

Several emigrants once enslaved by James Hunter Terrell sent letters to Terrell's executor and nephew, Dr. James Minor. (University of Virginia)

The Republic of Maryland, at its request, was annexed by Liberia and named Maryland County, although it was still often called Maryland in Liberia.

Rev. Alex Crummel of Washington, DC, an activist for Black liberation, published The Relations and Duties of Free Colored Men in America to Africa: A Letter to Charles B. Dunbar. He did not support a “return to Africa” movement, espoused in some circles, but thought Black Americans were uniquely suited to address Africa’s challenges through business and evangelizing, citing Liberia as an example.

President Abraham Lincoln extended the United States of America’s official recognition to Liberia.

“Richmonia Richmond” or “Richmonia St. Pierre,” formerly Mary Jane Richards, whom Elizabeth Van Lew had released from slavery in Richmond for freedom in Liberia, gave addresses at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City and the African M.E. Church in Brooklyn. In them she praised African American emigrants and some indigenous cultures in Liberia, making the case for social justice in the United States. Richards had earlier returned to Virginia and evidence suggests she participated with Van Lew in the Union spy system during the American Civil War.

A total of 172 emigrants affiliated with the all-Black Lynchburg Emigration Society sailed for Careysburg in Liberia with the assistance of a Liberian agent in Albemarle County. This group was the largest and last group to emigrate from Virginia.