SLAVERY 1834 Young Men's Colonization Society Of Penn... Expedition Of Coloured Emigrants To Bassa Cove

"Ten thousand slaves would this moment be released from thralldom, if
they could be transported from this country." p 31

J.R. Tyson, A Discourse Before the Young Men’s Colonization Society of Pennsylvania, Delivered
October 24, 1834, in St. Paul’s Church, Philadelphia, by J.R. Tyson, with a Notice of the Proceedings of
the Society, and of their First Expedition of Coloured Emigrants to Found a Colony at Bassa Cove
(Philadelphia: William S. Martien, 1834). Original blue wrapper, stitched pamphlet; inscribed "To N. Ewing, Esq. from R. H. Lee" -- Nathaniel Ewing & Richard H. Lee (of the prominent Lee family of Virginia?) both active in the Southern Colonization movement. Withdrawn from Fisk Univ. collection.

The Committee appointed by the Young Men's Colonization Society of Pennsylvania quickly prepared for their First Expedition of Coloured Emigrants to Bassa Cove. They selected 81 emancipated slaves from the late Dr. Hawes' residence in Rappahannock county. The Committee believed these emigrants, with a diverse range of skills like carpentry, bricklaying, and weaving, would prosper in the settlement through industrious labor. Dr. Hawes bequeathed $2,500 in his will to fund the expedition's charter and outfitting costs for the emigration of his freed slaves. This pamphlet provides valuable primary source information on the American Colonization Society's early efforts to resettle freed African Americans in West Africa in the early to mid-1800s, shedding light on their goals, logistics, and reasoning.