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A Sesqui-Centennial
History of Kentucky
A narrative historical
edition, commemorating one hundred and fifty years of
statehood, preserving the record of the growth and
development of the commonwealth, and chronicling the
genealogical and memorial records of its prominent
families and personages Hopkinsville, Ky. Publisher:
Historical Record Association, 1945, 2426 pgs
Page 411: "The codicil to the will of Samuel Oldham,
Jefferson County, Kentucky, Deed Book 2, page 214, dated
January 28, 1823, provided: "Four old Negroes shall not
be required to do any involuntary service; they may
elect which children they will live with, and if
necessary be maintained out of estate; Negro woman Phebe
shall serve daughter Sally Merriwether for three years,
then maintained. Two acres of land to be kept for place
interment for family and the blacks."
Page 420:
"Samuel Shaw, of
Jefferson County, Kentucky, willed that "Slave Frank to
be sent to Liberia whenever his
mother or any of his brothers and sister, now owned by
M. D. Averill, may be sent, or when he is twenty-one,
if he is willing to go, expenses paid and $50 and if he
will not go, is to be hired out for benefit of American
Colonization Society to which testator left money."
Kentucky Colonization Society
Page 419:
"By 1822 the Society
had raised over $1100 for the transportation of free
Negroes to Liberia, and the time had come for the first
expedition from Kentucky. Rev. Richard Bibb, of Logan
County, liberated 51 of his slaves and gave the 32 who
were willing to go to Liberia $444 for their comforts on
the voyage. By April 20, 1833 the vessel Ajax with 150
emigrants, 107 of them from Kentucky, left New Orleans
for Liberia. Tragedy overtook the Ajax in the form of
cholera, and between 30 and 40 of the passengers and
crew died of the disease. Among the emigrants was "a
female slave (Milly) brought up by Mrs. (Robert)
Wickliffe, who possessed a superior education and gifted
mind, and was intended for a teacher in Liberia. With
her was her son Alfred who was to become a minister.
Milly died of cholera but Alfred reached the shores of
Africa and became one of Liberia's leading citizens."
"The early wills of Kentucky show that many slave owners
provided that at the death of their respective masters
they be sent to Liberia. Outstanding among these wills
is that of Major Richard Bibb, who liberated all of his
51 slaves, valued at $25,000, and willed that all of
them who did not have wives or husbands in bondage be
sent to Liberia. In addition he gave to his emancipated
slaves $5000 to be divided among them."
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