Charles H. Lloyd to Samuel Breese Letter
Content Description
This collection features a single letter written by Charles H. Lloyd, addressed to his uncle, Samuel Breese of Oneida, New York. Lloyd writes from Harrisonburg, Virginia, asking his uncle for funds to return to New York as he cannot find other employment. He writes, " I am situated so that I cannot move at all. I have tried to get a situation here in place... but unsuccessfully and all because I am not a good writer & bookkeeper. I feel very anxious indeed to get back to New York but Mr. Bailey has no money to pay my expenses back and can not let me have it for 6 or 8 weeks." Rufus W. Bailey, a Virginia American Colonization Society Agent, employed Lloyd.
The American Colonization Society, also known as the Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America until 1837, was an American organization founded in 1816 by Robert Finley to encourage and support the migration of freeborn Black people and emancipated enslaved people to the continent of Africa, specifically Liberia.
In the letter, Lloyd writes that Bailey can not cover his cost to return because "He [Bailey] is about to send a Ship of Emigrants to Liberia and is getting them down the Vally [sic] as fast as possible, but they will not be ready to sail before October 1. He then expects to have $1,000 at last and more if he sends over 100 emigrants. He is obliged to pay all their expenses until they go and told me yesterday he could not possibly let me have a dollar until his ship has sailed."
During the Liberian emigrant voyage discussed in this letter, which sailed November 1, 1851, on the Morgan Dix, approximately thirty-seven of the 149 passengers died on board the ship or during the acclimation period in Africa, which basically ended Bailey's career and objective of emigrating Black people to Liberia. He believed his strategies could cleanse Virginia of its entire free Black population.
More information including names of Black people who were sent to Liberia, can be found in Eslinger's article, "The Brief Career of Rufus W. Bailey" which is cited below.
Source:
Eslinger, Ellen. "The Brief Career of Rufus W. Bailey, American Colonization Society Agent in Virginia." The Journal of Southern History , Feb., 2005, Vol. 71, No. 1 (Feb., 2005), pp. 39-
74 Published by: Southern Historical Association. JSTOR website. accessed 10/19/23
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27648651
https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/27648651.pdf?refreqid=fastly-default%3A61b32134896141b6912857d1c70ddf63&ab_segments=&origin=&initiator=&acceptTC=1
Dates
- Creation: August 15, 1851
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research use.
Biographical / Historical
The letter mentions the Reverend Rufus W. Bailey, the employer of Charles Lloyd and an agent of the American Colonization Society from 1847 to 1853 in the western part of Virginia. Bailey and the actions of the ACS were part of a plan to remove Black people from American society and send them to Liberia.
During the six years that Bailey served as an agent, starting in 1847, about 920 colonists, primarily free Blacks from Bailey's home region in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, left the state for Liberia, compared to a total of approximately 1,807 in the twenty years following the society's founding in 1817. The annual average from Virginia increased from approximately 95 to 153 persons. Bailey used coercive techniques and pressure to manipulate free and enslaved Black people to emigrate to Liberia. His goal was to create a completely white society and he did more for the American Colonization Society to reach this objective than any other single individual in Virginia.
The letter from Charles Lloyd mentions that Bailey was assembling 150 passengers to sail on the Morgan Dix to Liberia on November 1, 1851. Approximately 37 of those who had joined the Liberia Wagon and shipped out on the Morgan Dix were soon dead from one of the worst voyages in the history of the ACS. Others died from conditions once they were in Liberia. Emigrant mortality doomed Bailey's plans for future voyages. Bailey could not pay his bills or earn a living and retired from the agency in 1853. This is further proven by Lloyd mentioning that Bailey could not pay him back the money that Lloyd desperately needed to return to New York.
"Bailey's objective to eventually remove all free Blacks from Virginia received full ACS support. The national office was kept fully informed of his effort to dislodge potential free Black emigrants by applying the arm of the law." It is not known what Lloyd's attitudes were towards Bailey or the ACS, but he was not happy in Virginia and needed to return to New York to find better work. He claimed he was not good at writing or bookkeeping. After Bailey retired, the number of emigrants to Liberia substantially decreased. This letter and the mention of Mr. Bailey provokes a deeper dive into his work at the ACS and more importantly, to learn more about the lives of the Black people that Bailey and others persuaded and coerced to immigrate to Liberia.
More information including names and life details of Black emigrants to Liberia can be found in Eslinger's article "The Brief Career of Rufus W. Bailey, American Colonization Society Agent in Virginia."
Source:
Eslinger, Ellen. "The Brief Career of Rufus W. Bailey, American Colonization Society Agent in Virginia." The Journal of Southern History , Feb., 2005, Vol. 71, No. 1 (Feb., 2005), pp. 39-
74 Published by: Southern Historical Association. JSTOR website. accessed 10/19/23
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27648651
https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/27648651.pdf?refreqid=fastly-default%3A61b32134896141b6912857d1c70ddf63&ab_segments=&origin=&initiator=&acceptTC=1
Extent
0.04 Cubic Feet (One legal-sized file folder)
Language of Materials
English
Immediate Source of Acquisition
This collection was purchased from Michael Brown Rare Books by the Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia Library on 20 January 2023.
Subject
- Bailey, Rufus William, 1793-1863 (Person)
- American Colonization Society (Organization)
- Title
- Charles H. Lloyd to Samuel Breese Letter
- Author
- Ellen Welch
- Date
- 2023-10-18
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library Repository
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
P.O. Box 400110
University of Virginia
Charlottesville Virginia 22904-4110 United States