LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ►^.•i:if* • -•' ^ • • o • v^ ^'- ^^ iN^ •*- o^ .••^•♦. "^O. " J^"" ,.V'.V "^. '•^6* I: \.^^ •- ^* ^ \ .^ . V.%* f^"* jP^*.. %*^^%o' V^^V 'V*^'^'/ v^ **'\ • 4.1 *W^ ./"-. •■•• .» rjk - - - * 1 **'-^-. .»^' •♦ « • a ^^v <0^ • • • # '^^ U A^ *t. D^ ••-•*. "^O i* /'y^:i^-l\ *» 'yak- % «" vVi;- \, J^^'.'-^'^" COMMUNICATION FROM THE BOARD OF MANAGERS OF THE MARYLAND STATE COLONIZATION SOCIETY, TO THE PRESIDENT AND MEMBERS OF THE CONVENTION NOW ASSEMBLED IN BALTIMORE, IN REFERENCE TO THE SUBJECT OF COLONIZATION. BALTIMORE: PRINTED BY JOHN D. TOY. 1841. ^1 b'3 L. ^ '04 COMMUNICATION FROM THE BOARD OF MANAGERS MARYLAND STATE COLONIZATION SOCIETY, To the President and Members of the Convention now assembled in Baltimore, in reference to the subject of Colonization. Gentlemen: In pursuance of the duty imposed on them by the resolution of the last Annual Matting of the Maryland State Colonization Society, held at Anna- polis, the Board of Managers appointed this day for the meeting of the Convention then resolved upon, and published an Address to the people of the State, calling their attention to the subject as one of deep and vital interest. The Board of Managers, in doing thus, have performed perhaps, fully, all that was required of them by the resolution above mentioned : but inas- much as the call for a Convention grew out of what took place at the Annual Meeting of the State Society, it has been thought, that it would not be unacceptable to the Convention, were they to reiterate briefly, the facts and views which were stated at Annapolis — as well as to present such other considerations as have been suggested in the interval. The State Society exists for the purpose of promoting zn Maryland the well known objects of the Colonization scheme — the removal of the free people of colour with their own consent to the Coast of Africa. It is independent wholly, at this time, of the American Colonization Society. This inde- pendence was the result of the convictions of many years experience of the inefficiency, so far as Maryland was concerned, of the general system. It was believed that more could be done by concentrating the efforts of the Colonizationists of Maryland within the limits of their own State, than by any probable quota of aid that could be afforded by a society in Washington, equally bound to all the other states ; and it was plain, that in anticipation of the time when the voluntary emigration of the free people of colour would be the realization of the scheme, it would be better that Maryland should have a colony of her own, open without restraint to emigrants from her borders, instead of being dependent upon other colonies whose govern- ment might find it necessary to apportion the right of immigration. Be- sides these, in themselves sufficient reasons, for independent action, the State Society was especially moved by the consideration, that the whole subject of the coloured population was one which belonged exclusively to the States in which the institution of slavery existed — that extraneous interference therewith, or with any matters collateral thereto, was to be wholly repudiated — and that it was impossible to hope for harmonious action in any general society, whose members entertained such diiFerent views respecting Colonization and its consequences, as did the northern and southern members of the American Colonization Society. Influenced by these considerations, the system of independent state action, on all mat- ters connected with the coloured population, was adopted by the State Society, and has for the last ten years been avowed and pursued. The Society after being incorporated by the Legislature, and having de- termined to found a colony of their own, became the agent of the managers of the State Colonization fund in removing to Africa the subjects of the act of Assembly, passed at the session of 1831, and its supplements — and on the 22d February, 1834, they purchased the territory of Cape Palmas, to which was given the name of Maryland in Liberia, and to which have since been sent all emigrants from Maryland. This spot was selected after numerous inquiries and with much deliberation. Its geographical position is one of great importance. It is at the southern extremity of the south- west coast, and is the point made by all vessels passing to and fro from the Niger, and the country lying on the shores of the great Bights of Benin and Biafra. The territory of the Society extends on the coast about 35 miles, and indefinitely towards the interior, including in it the Cavally, one of the principal rivers of South-western Africa. The annals of Coloniza- tion present no instance of uninterrupted prosperity to be compared to that which has blessed the infant settlement of the State Society. The last advices from it are up to the 12th March last, and the first untoward event, to disappoint any reasonable expectation of its friends, has yet to take place. Health, happiness, and quiet prosperity, are essentially its characteristics. The last letter of the colonial physician states that there has not been a death in the colony for eight months. On a recent occasion all the tempta- tions that an English agent could offer, failed to induce more than one man to leave the colony to join a British settlement — and there is, in the posses- sion of the Board of Managers, an agricultural survey of the colony shew- ing the extent of land under cultivation, the articles cultivated, and the exuberant supplies of food procured by the labour of the colonists them- selves upon their land. Coffee and sugar are promising to become staples of export. Cotton has been cultivated with success. The soil produces all the vegetables of the tropics. The Cape and the surrounding country have for a long period been known as supplying rice to both the windward and leeward coasts. Palm oil is exported by the natives in immense quantities. Cattle, game, and fish are abundant — and to sum up all, it may be safely said, that there is nothing ministering to individual ease and comfort, or national aggrandizement, that is not within the reach of ordinary industry in Maryland in Liberia. The population of the colony now consists of something more than five hundred emigrants, who have sailed from Maryland to Cape Palmas. To the prudence with which the emigration was first conducted, which permitted each body of emigrants to become settled before they were fol- lowed by another, is to be attributed in great degree the steady advance of the colony. All the officers of the colony from the highest, the agent of the Board of Managers, called the governor, to the lowest, are persons of colour — who have thus far discharged their duties with a propriety whose best evidence is the condition of the settlement. Governor Russwurm was educated at Bowdoin college, in the State of Maine, where he graduated with the high- est honours, and, besides his classical attainments, is a person of great pru- dence and judgment. He was at one time the editor of an abolition paper in New York, which he abandoned to become a colonist at Monrovia, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits, until the Maryland Society, hav- ing determined to appoint a coloured agent, induced him to take charge of the colony at Cape Palmas. The colonial physician is also a coloured man, of education and ability, the son of a Maryland emigrant, who received his medical education at a college in New England ; and indeed the only white persons at Cape Palmas are the missionaries established there by the societies in this country : and of these last it may be said that they seem thus far fully to have disproved the oft reiterated and generally believed assertion that the climate of the African coast was fatal to the life of the white man. The principal town of the territory is on the promontory of Cape Palmas, and from this the farms of the colonists extend for five miles into the inte- rior, bordering upon roads graded and bridged for carriages. At the extre- mity of the Maryland avenue, as it is called, is a small stockade, which forms at present the frontier post of the settlement. Besides the school supported by the Society, and one maintained by an association of ladies in Baltimore, there are several maintained by the missionaries, to which the colonists have access. The laws under which the colony is governed consist of a charter, closely resembling that granted by King Charles to Rhode Island — an ordi- nance taken mainly from Nathan Dane's ordinance for the government of the North-west Territory — and a remedial code prepared with great labour and learning, by Hugh D. Evans, Esq. of Baltimore, including forms for all processes and instruments likely to be wanted. Under the charter, the ordinance and the remedial code — superseding, as they have done by express enactment, all other forms of law — the colonists have enjoyed the blessings of a well regulated liberty under a republican form of government. It is a pecuUarity of the charter that it gives to the government the right to legislate to prohibit the use of ardent spirit, and the colony is the only instance in the world of a nation whose fundamental law embodies in it the temperance code. It is due to the colonists to say that their full con- viction of the salutary effects of abstinence, has made them especially cherish this feature of their constitution. The occupations of the colonists are chiefly agricultural and mechanical, trade being in the hands of the Society's agent, as a means of adding to the income of the Society for colonization purposes, and maintaining the colony. It is expected that the trade of the colony, which has grown up naturally, and which has already done much towards diminishing the expenses of the Society, will in a reasonable time enable the Board to con- fine the means obtained in this country to the removal of emigrants and home expenses exclusively. The colony is in the midst of native tribes, with all of whom the most friendly relations are maintained. Peace with them is indeed a cardinal point of the policy of the government, and it has been maintained since the founding of the settlement, unbroken, without sacrificing in any degree the dignity and influence which superior civilization gives to the American emigrant. In mentioning this gratifying state of things, it would be unjust not to express the sense entertained by the Board of the value of the missionary labours around the settlement. These have been unceasing and self- sacrificing, and have realized in the particular here mentioned all the expectations entertained in regard to the pious and excellent men who have devoted themselves in this part of Africa to the instruction of the heathen. The funds of the Society are derived from the State appropriation under the act of 1831, limited to $10,000 per annum, and the contributions of benevolent individuals, which last has raised very much from time to time — being once or twice as much as $5000 per annum, though oftener not exceeding $1000. The sum expended by the Society in the founding of the colony, and the attendant outlay in Africa and in this country, up to the 1st of December last, has been $127,825.07, of which $76,139.91 has been paid by the State Colonization fund, $32,351. 62 has been contributed by individuals and by the gain of the trade of the colony. The principal items of expen- diture have been the purchase of the territory — the erection there of the necessary buildings and improvements, both for the government and in aid of the emigrants — the support of emigrants for the first six months, which is necessary to be done while the colony is yet so young — the trans- portation of emigrants from this country — and the payment of officers in Africa, and the expenses of agencies, office rent, &c. in Maryland. Among the expenditures thus noticed, are included those connected with two expeditions to the old colon}"^ at Monrovia, sent before the purchase of Cape Palmas. The Board of Managers do not offer this statement as exhibiting the cost of transporting and establishing emigrants in Africa, or as a standard by which the feasibility of Colonization is to be determined with reference to the moans of this country. Under any view of the subject this would be incorrect, because a portion of the expenses incident to establishing a colony, occur but once, and have been borne already. But the Society looking as they do upon Colonization as a scheme of voluntary emigration. the principal question with them appeared to be, not whether they should emigrate, but what was the best time for emigration. Between 1825 and 1831, however, what is known as modern abolition, which aims at the immediate extirpation of slavery, without any regard to the rights of property acquired under existing laws, and with a blind reck- lessness of consequence, began to assume a defined shape and extensive organization: and as soon as the Colonization policy of Maryland was understood, it became the point of virulent and opprobious assault : the leading publication on the subject being a pamphlet published in Boston, entitled, 'The Maryland Scheme of Expatriation Examined' — the aim of which was to set Colonization in the position (which indeed it truly occu- pies,) of the antagonist of abolition, and as such, to consign it to public execration. From that period to the present, the Board of Managers have had to encounter the fixed and steady opposition of the abolition doctrines, disseminated among the coloured people of the State by means not the less effective, because it is difficult to identify them, and because the work of misrepresentation goes on quietly and in the dark. From the oft reiterated statements of their agents, who have for years been canvassing the State, the Board have every reason to believe, that they have been tracked in their missions from place to place — their statements contradicted, their motives assailed, and the grossest falsehoods regarding them, uttered by either the paid, or the voluntary agents of abolition. Again and again, has the agent taken the names of whole families for emigration, who were evidently at the time of giving them, wholly ignorant of abolition and its doctrines — and when the agent has afterwards visited them to collect them for embarka- tion, they have refused to accompany him, urging in excuse the well known arguments of the abolitionists — and having their minds filled with hopes which it were madness to believe could be realized — and statements so ab- surdly false as to savour of the ludicrous, but for their mischievous and evil intentioned source. So common, truly, was this state of things, that it was the usual remark of the agents — that it was only necessary for a coloured man to declare his intention of emigrating in his neighbourhood, to make it certain that he would never leave the State — for the declaration at once made him the object of the countervailing efforts of the abolitionists. The arguments of these last were of two kinds, suited to the character of the individual addressed. To the ignorant, the weak and timid, it was said that Africa was so unhealthy, that to live there was impossible — that it was one vast desert of sand — that it abounded in serpents of vast size, and wild beasts that would destroy the life the climate spared — that the natives were warlike and ferocious, killing and eating their enemies — and that they were constantly at war with the colonists — that the accounts given by the coloni- zationists were all false — that they were in fact, slave traders — that often, when their vessels with emigrants, cleared the Capes of the Chesapeake, they ran down the coast to Georgia, and there the emigrants were sold — or else they were carried still further south, to unknown lands, to die by vio- lence. To those of the coloured people who knew better than to listen to these absurdities — the argument assumed another shape, and the intelligent and the ambitious were told that all emigrants were traitors to their race, such as annually takes place from Europe to America, rely upon the opera- tion of the same motive ultimately — a desire to benefit their condition — that influences the European emigrant to seek the United States — to induce the free coloured population to seek the home of their fathers ; all that is necessary to bring about this result, being, as the Board of Mana- gers behave, the establishment of happy and prosperous communities of civihzed coloured people on the shores of Africa. For this purpose the means that may be obtained, experience has shev^rn to be sufficient, though it might perhaps be doubted whether they would be adequate to the pay- ment of the cost of transporting each emigrant that might be willing to leave America. Such a community as here mentioned, the Board of Managers have no hesitation in saying has been established at Cape Palmas, small, it is true, and of yet but limited influences, but containing within itself already the germs of future increase and national importance, and requiring for but a comparatively short time the assistance that has thus far reared and main- tained it, to enable it to fulfil all the reasonable expectations of its founders and friends. From what has been said it will be perceived, that the discussion of the subject of Colonization in Maryland is necessarily connected with the colony springing from the State, established by its bounty, and existing at present to promote the views that led to the adoption of the State's policy upon the subject. The history of the colony has, therefore, been given, and the views entertained by the Board of Managers who have had the con- trol of it heretofore through their agents in Africa. The small annual increase of the colony in the early period of its exis- tence has already been alluded to, and shewn to have corresponded with the views of the Managers, in regard to the best means of giving stability to the settlement. Of late years its increase has been retarded — though perhaps, without any disadvantage to the colony itself, by two causes, differing widely in themselves, but both operating to retard emigration. These will now be noticed. When Colonization was first advocated in the United States, in 1816, there was nothing known of what may be called modern abolition. There were societies it is true, that called themselves abolition societies — but they aimed rather, if not entirely, at assisting the coloured people against op- pression under pretence of law — and did not, as is well known, assert the principles or seek the ends that are proclaimed by modern associations under the same title. In 1820, when the first settlement was made by the American Colonization Society there was no difficulty in obtaining emi- grants — emigration the ndepended only upon the means of the Society to transport — and this continued to be the case year after year — and in 1832, when the first expedition under the State Colonization law was sent from Maryland to Monrovia, prior to the purchase of Cape Palmas, the agent, in a single neighbourhood on the Eastern Shore, found no difficulty in procuring one hundred and fifty emigrants, of character and intelligence. During this period it seemed to have grown into a general belief, on the part of the coloured people, that their interest would be promoted by emigration, and that every emigrant to Africa diminished by one the numerical force upon which they had to rely for extorting from the fears, what they could not obtain from the justice, of the whites — political and social equality — called among the coloured people in common parlance 'their rights' — that if Colonization could be destroyed by continued opposition among the coloured people themselves — for without emigrants it could not exist — then the whites would seriously consider how far they could yield to the other race an equal participation in all political and social enjoyments. That in Mary- land, especially, Colonization was to be opposed — because in Maryland it was more likely to succeed than any where else, and if defeated here it would be admitted to be hopeless elsewhere. These two sets of arguments found hearers among the coloured people, according to the intelligence of the individual addressed — and being constantly urged for the last ten years, have formed the most important obstacle in the way of the society in their attempts to increase their colony by emigration from this country. What is here stated has been again and again repeated in the Annual Reports of the Society, and is believed to be beyond contradiction. The Board have grounds to believe, however, that the arguments here mentioned have lost some of their former weight with the free people of colour : and there is reason to think that these are beginning slowly to find out, that while the efforts of the abolitionists have alienated from them the kindly feelings, out of which grew the old abolition societies already referred to, they have given them instead, nothing but hopes, which the events of each succeeding day are shewing more and more plainly to be impossible of accomplishment. As evidence of this, may be cited the emi- gration to the British West Indies, which, so long as it continued, was strongly indicative of the existence of a feeling among the free coloured population, that their condition might be bettered by removing from among us. When this feeling becomes general, the question will be, which place offers the most advantages to the emigrant; and then there can be little doubt, that the impartial judgment of the coloured people will prefer the colonies on the Coast of Africa, where the enjoyment of political power is a right, to any place where a scant and poor participation in it is but a nominal and delusive gift. The above reason, which to a considerable extent, has retarded the ope- rations of the Board, and prevented their taking the active steps to procure emigrants, that they would otherwise have done, grows out of the pecuniary affairs of the Society. Since its organization under the charter, it has been the aim of the Board of Managers to maintain the Society's credit on the highest ground, and up to this day there has been the same punctuality maintained in meeting engagements that marks a commercial house of respectability. With a view to the economical prosecution of their affairs, the Society has always sent trade goods to Africa, to meet the expenses there, instead of permitting drafts from thence upon the Society. A draft for an hundred dollars given to a trader on the Coast, purchases these goods, which cost but sixty-six dollars in the United States — and if the hundred dollars in place of being paid for the draft had been invested by the Society and sent to the agent, it would be worth to him in goods, two hundred doi- 2 10 lars — so that the Society found itself forced to assume from its commence- ment, a commercial character, and along with every shipment of emigrants to send an assorted cargo of goods required in the African trade. These formed when required, the money of the colony, and constituted a capital on which the agent carried on a trade in rice and palm oil, whose profits went still further to eke out the means of the Society. On the 1st Decem- ber, 1840, the net gains on this account, after charging it with interest paid and losses amounted to $16,444.90. This system which so much increases the means of the Society in its African relations, can only be carried on by the most scrupulous observance of punctuality in meeting all engagements, and this again requires that no obligation be entered into without clearly seeing the manner of meeting it. In the commencement of the settlement the expenditures necessary for the purchase of territory, erection of buildings, opening of roads, fortifi- cations, arms, &c., and also for the entire support of the colony for two or three years — and afterwards the policy pursued of aiding the emigrants until they were permanently established, involved the Society beyond its receipts, and obliged them steadily to curtail their operations as soon as the colony became strong enough to stand with but little assistance by itself. This was the more necessary, inasmuch as individual contributions dimi- nished under the pressure of the times. The Society, therefore, has sent out no expedition for a year past, but by husbanding its means, has been gradually absorbing the debt created under the circumstances above men- tioned, a process necessarily slow, when it is recollected that a nation has been founded in prosperity, and all the home and foreign expenses of the Society borne at an expenditure that has not averaged more than $13,000 per annum. This debt of the Society is reduced at this time to about $8,000, which includes all probable demands up to the 1st July, 1841, and excludes an)' advantages which may be derived from the trade of the colony, in pay- ing the expenses accruing in Africa. Up to March 12th last, no draft had been drawn on the Society ; and besides paying a draft which had been returned under protest, through a misunderstanding, the agent had pur- chased a schooner of forty tons, with which he was actively prosecuting a trade on the coast on colonial account. From these statements it will be seen that the State Society have suc- ceeded in establishing a colony at Cape Palmas, in every respect competent to the exigencies of Colonization in Maryland ; and that this has been done with the means furnished by a single slaveholding State, applied upon the principle of independent State action, which repudiates in the State where slavery exists, all extraneous interference in matters that are so peculiarly of home and fire-side concern as those that relate in any way to its coloured population. But to realize to their utmost extent the benefits of what has been thus accomplished, there must be a more general and united action throughout the State on the subject of Colonization, than has yet been had. As yet it is but a matter of curious interest that there should have been established with the success and economy that have been described, a colony on the coast of Africa upon the principle already detailed ; and although this result of independent State action in Maryland, proves that 11 Colonization among the slaveholding States may be successfully carried on by themselves, as, owing to the peculiar character of the questions involved, it ought to be ; yet the useful, practical advantages of Colonization in Maryland, are in a great measure yet to be realized. To this end it is necessary to remove the prejudice prevailing among the coloured popula- tion, whether it arises from a belief in the misrepresentations current with regard to the health and circumstances of the colony, or is the result of the vain and idle hopes of future social and political equality in this country, which it has been the aim of modern abolitionists to implant in the breasts of the free coloured people of Maryland ; and it is also necessary to aug- ment the pecuniary means of the Society, that it may be able to transport more emigrants to Africa, and prosecute improvements there until the well assured and long continued prosperity of the colony shall produce that voluntary emigration which is looked forward to as the fruition of Colonization. To effect these purposes, it was, that at the last Annual Meeting the pre- sent Convention was directed to be called ; and taking it for granted that the situation of Maryland, the legislation of the State, the oft expressed feelings of her people upon occasion after occasion, have given to the scheme of Colonization a sanction which renders it unnecessary to argue its merits or its expediency, — the Board of Managers would most respect- fully express their hope and belief that the action of the Convention now assembled will result in producing a concerted and energetic action throughout the State ; which, influencing the citizens generally to contri- bute to the funds of the Society, from a conviction of the vital character of its objects, will at the same time operate upon the free coloured population to remove their prejudices, whether arising from the fears or from the hopes already referred to. It has appeared to the Board of Managers, and they respectfully suggest it to the Convention, that the time has arrived when it becomes the citizens of the State to take this matter into serious consideration. The statistics of the population of Maryland since 1790, are full of admonition, and exhibit a state of things that should not be disregarded ; a mere inspec- tion of them exhibits as strong an argument for action as could be furnished by the most elaborate commentary. They shew that the coloured popula- tion of the State is changing its character ; that the free are increasing and the slaves diminishing in numbers, and that the same rates of increase of the one, and diminution of the other, will result in the whole coloured population becoming ultimately free, and equal in numbers to the present aggregate of slave and free. When this day arrives, if there be truth in the history which tells of the races that have inhabited the same lands, and which could not amalgamate, the harmonious existence of the white and coloured races here will become impossible. Against this day Coloni- zation has been preparing its asylum. Colonization, indeed, may be able to arrest it by the gradual removal of the free coloured population, as the rod of Franklin anticipates the lightning when it draws insensibly from the angry clouds, their pent-up electricity. Among the most important auxiliaries in the task of removing the preju- J2 dices to emigration, the Board have relied upon the establishment of a regular trade between Maryland, and Maryland in Liberia, and had their means permitted, they would long since have purchased a vessel of their own, to be officered and manned with colonists, that should sail to and fro at stated intervals, receiving emigrants as occasion might require, as well along the bay as at Baltimore. The intercourse that would thus be esta- blished, would, it is confidently believed, be productive of the best effects in overcoming growing prejudice, and also in promoting those commercial interests of the colony which are so important to its w^ealth and prosperity. The Board are under the impression too, that an organization of County associations to have in charge the whole subject of Colonization in their respective limits, would be attended with excellent results, not only as at^encies for the collection of funds, but also to impart information to the coloured people, and counteract the influences which as alread}^ mentioned, circumstances have satisfactorily shewn to be secretly at work among them. The occasional visit of the single travelling agent that the Society has barely the means to employ, may create a temporary feeling of interest which cannot be expected to endure until he again returns after having made the circuit of the State. The interest that is required, however, must be permanent in its character to be useful, and the Board see no manner in which it can be created and maintained so well as through the agency of County associations. The presidents of these associations should be ex- officio members of the Board of Managers, in Baltimore, in which way the relations between the parent and auxiliary boards would be made intimate and efficient. And in addition to these, the means of the Society ought to be such as to enable them to employ numerous agents of talent and infor- mation to canvass the State thoroughly, and at short intervals, acting in concert with the County societies. It has been so often asked of the Board of Managers why they have not removed to Africa all the slaves manumitted since the act of 1831, and prohibited by that act from remaining in the State, that it will not be out of place to allude here to the subject. It is true that the managers of the State Colonization fund who use the agency of the State Society under the act in question are required to have the slaves manumitted removed from the State, and are authorized to call on the sheriff of the Counties in which the manumission takes place, to put the manumitted slaves out of the State, if they refuse to emigrate to Liberia. But the law is in truth so impracticable of execution that it has remained in this particular, almost a dead letter on the statute book. In the first place, the majority of manumissions are prospec- tive, and in the next, the Orphans Court have the right to grant permits to remain to the freed man, because of his extraordinary good character — and even where the manumission is immediate, and no permit is granted to re- main, the manumitted slave remains unnoticed in the neighbourhood, con- cealed, perhaps, when the agent visits it, and there being no one upon the spot whose business it is trouble himself about the matter, the law is evaded in nine cases out of ten. Nor is it in the Society's power to prevent this. As the law now stands it w^ould be necessary for them to have an agent in every county whose exclusive duty it should be to enforce the provisions 13 of instruments of manumissions, which would involve an expense far be- yond the whole income of the Society from all sources. The managers have not been unmindful of their duty in this respect, however, and have never failed to send their agent wherever information was afforded to them of any case requiring their action — and it has happened that the agent has thus been travelling from one extremity of the State to the other, only to find that the freed slave had a permit to remain, or to hear him promise to sail in the next expedition, his place in which he never appeared to claim ; disappearing when the agent went for him a short time previous to the time of embarkation. Facts like these here mentioned must be known to many members of the Convention. In this communication the Board of Managers have endeavoured to notice all the matters which it was thought might be of interest to the Con- vention, or useful in its deliberations; any other information in their reach it will gratify them to afford, and they beg to say that the office and records of the Society are at all times open to the members of the Convention, or any of the committees which that body may think proper to appoint. A tabular statement of the different census of Maryland, from 1790 to 1840, both inclusive, is herewith submitted — also a statement of the manumissions reported to the office in Baltimore, since 1831 — also a Ust of the expeditions, and the number sent in each by the Society to Africa. On behalf of the Board of Managers, JOHN H. B. LATROBE, Prexident. Population of Maryland in 1790, 1800, 1810, 1820, 1830 and 1840, as shewn by the census taken in those years, White. Slaves. Free Col'd. Agg. Col'd. Total. 1790 208,649 103,036 8,043 111079 319,728 1800 216,326 105,635 19,587 125,238 341,548 tsio 235,117 111,502 33,927 145,429 380,546 1820 259,522 107,998 39,730 147,728 407,350 1830 291,108 102,994 52,938 155,932 447,040 1840 316,011 89,619 61.093 151,556 467,567 Population of the Couniies of Mnrylandin 1790, 1800, 1810, 1820, 1830 and 1840, as shewn by the census taken in those years. CECIL. KENT. C.-VROLINE. Slaves. F. Col. White. Total. Slaves. F. Col. White. Total. Slaves. F. Col. White. Total. 1790 3,407 163 10,055 13,625 5,443 655 6,748 12,836 2,057 421 7,028 9,506 1800 2,103 373 6,542 9,018 4,474 1,786 5,511 11,771 1,865 602 6,759 9,226 1810 2,467 947 9,652 13,066 4,249 1,979 5,222 11.450 1,520 1,001 6,932 9,453 1820 2,342 1,783 11,821 16,046 4,07] 2,067 5,315 11,4.53 1,574 1,.390 7,144 10,108 1830 1,705 2.249 11,478 15,432 3,19] 2,260 5,050 10,501 1,171 1,652' 6,247 9,070 1840 1,346 2,552 1.3,464 17 362] 2,741 2,586 5,513 10,840 768 1,727 5,373 7,868 TALBOT. QUEEN ANNE'S. SOMERSET. Slaves. F. Col. White. Total. Slaves. F. Col. (White. Total. 1 Slav'!S. F. Col. White. Total. 1790 4,777 1,076 7,221 13,084 6,674 618 8,171 15,463! 7,070 268 8,272 15,610 1800 4,775 ],.591 7,070 13,436 6,517 1,025 7,315 14,857 7,432 586 9,340 17,358 1810 4,878 2,003 7,349 14,230 6,381 2,738 7,529 16,648 6,975 1,058 9,162 17,195 1820 4,769 2,234 7,386 14,389 5,588 2,1.38 7,226 14,952 7,241 1,952 10,386 19,579 1830 4,173 2,483 6,291 12,947 4,872 2,866 6,559 14,3971 6,556 2,239 11,371 20,166 1840 3,698 2,.336 6,069 12,10.31 3,979 2.540 6,006 12.5251 5,,385 2,642 11,477 19,-504 DORCHESTER. WORCESTER. ALLEGANY. 1 Slaves. F. Col. White. Total. Slaves. F. Col. White. Total. Slaves. F. Col. White. Total. 1790 5,377 528 10,010 15,875 3,836 178 7,626 11,640 258 12 4,.539 4,809 1800 4,566 2,365 9,415 16,346 4,398 449 11,523 16,370 499 101 5,703 6,.303 1810 5,0.32 2,661 10,415 18,108 4,427 1,054 11,490 16,971 620 113 6,176 6,909 1820, 5,168 2,497 10,094 17,759 4,551 1,636 11,234 17,421 795 195 7,664 8,654 1830 5,001 3,000 10,685 18,686 4,032 2,430 10,197 16,659 818 222 9,569 10,609 1840 4,232 3,965 10,612 18,809 3,543 3,063 11,647 18,253 811 216 14,677 15,704 WASHINGTON. FREDERICK. BALTIMORE. 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 Slaves. F 1,286 2,200 2,656 3,201 2,909 2,505 Col. 64 342 483 627 1,084 1,556 White. 14,472 16,108 15,591 19,247 21,275 Total. 15,822 18,650 18,730 23,075 25,268 24,801 28,862 Maves. 3,641 4,.572 5,671 6,555 6,370 F. Col. j White. 213!26,9.37 47326,478 783127,983 1,777132,097 2,716.36,703 Total. 30,791 31,523 34,437 40,459 45,789 Slaves. F. Col. 5,8771 604 6,830 1,-536 6,697 1,537 6,720| 2,163 6,.533l 3,098 White. 18,953 24,150 21,021 24,580 30,625 Total. 25,434 32,516 29,255 33,463 40,256 B .\ L T I M O R E CITY HARFORD. MONTGOMERY. [Slaves. 1790 1.255 1800 2,843 1810 4,672 1820 4,357 1830 4,120 1840| 3,212 F. Col. 32:i 2,771 5,671 10,326 14,790 17,980 White. 11,925 20,900 -36,212 48,055 61,710 81,321 Total. 13,503 26,514 46.455 62,738 80,620 102.513 Slaves. .i.417 4,264 4,431 3,320 2,984 2,537 F. Col. 775 1,344 2,221 1,3S7 2,048 2,449 White. 10,784 12,018 14,606 11,217 11,287 11,915 Total. 14,976 17,626 21,2.58 15,924 16,319 16,901 ■Slaves. IF, 6.030 6,288 7.572 6,396 6,447 5,127 Col.: 294 262 677 922 1,266 1,240 White. 11,679 8,508 9,731 9,082; 12,103, 8,292i Total. 18,003 15,058 17,980 16,400 19,816 14,659 PRINCE GEORGE'S. SAINT MARY'S. CALVERT. j Slaves. F. Col. White. Total. ' .Slaves. F. Col. White. Total. Slaves. F. Col. White. Total. 1790 11,176 164 10,004 21,344 6,985 343 8,216 15,544 4,305 136 4,161 8,502 ISOO 12,191 648 8, .346 21,185 6,399 622 6,678 13,699 4,401 307 3,889 8,297 1810 9,189 4,929 6,471 20,589! 6,000 636 6,158 12.794 3,937 388 3,860 8,005 1820 11.285 1,096 7,835 20,216! 6,048 894 6,032 12,974 3,668 694 3,716 8,078 18.30 11,585 1,202 7,667 20,474' 6,183 1,179 6,097 13,459 3,899 1,213 3,788 8,900 1840,10,640 1.080 7,763 19,483; 5,757 1.413 6,074] 13,244 4,401 1,292 3,402 9,095 CHARL ES. ISIaves.lF. Col. White 1790 10,0851 1800 9,558[ 18lo'l2,435 1820i 9,419] 1830 10,129; 404 571 412 567 10,124 9,043 7,398 6,514 851 6,789 1840, 9,2801 8171 5,915 ANNE ARUNDEL. Total. IjSlavos. F. Col. 20,613 10,130 804 19,172 9,760 1,833 20,245 111,693 2,536 16,500 '10,328 3,382 17,769!} 9,997 4,076 ]6,012|l 9,816 1 6,120 White. Total. 11,664 22,.598 11,030 22,623 12.439 26,668 13,455 27,165 14,222 28,295 14,599 29,535 Note.— Carroll county is not in- cluded in this statement, having been created since 1H30, and the population of Halliniore and Frederick counties, from which Carroll wastaken.is not carried out in 1840, part of their popula- tion beinK then included in the census of Carroll countyj Table taken from the foregoing, and shemng the proportions of the White and Free Coloured Population in the several Counties in Maryland, in 1790, and in 1S40. Allegany. In 1790, 1 free col'c Ito 378 ^^ hites : in 1840, Ito 68 Washington. K 1 226 i< II Ito 16 Frederick. (1 1 126 II 1830, 1 to 13 Baltimore. (I 1 23 11 II Ito 10 Frederick, Baltimore and Carroll, the latter taken off between 1830 and 1840 : 1840, Ito 9 Baltimore City. In 1790, 1 free col'd to •37 whites : II Ito 4^ Harford. II 1 " 14 II