In the great work of the American Colonization Society, the leading
people of Virginia took a most active and sympathetic interest. This
was evinced in the organization of Auxiliary Societies at Richmond,
Norfolk, Fredericksburg, Petersburg, Alexandria, Lynchburg, Wheeling,
Charlestown, Shepherdstown, Hampton and Harper's Ferry and in the
Counties of Isle of Wight, Sussex, Albemarle, King William, Dinwiddie,
Amherst, Berkeley, Nansemond, Buckingham, Nelson, Fluvanna, Frederick,
Augusta, Kanawha, Powhatan, Loudoun, Rockingham, Mecklenburg,
Campbell, and others. The officials of these Societies numbered many
of the most prominent men of Virginia; John Marshall, then Chief
Justice of the United States, was President of the Richmond branch.
The Virginia Auxiliary Societies collected money by private
subscription, and facilitated in every way the transportation of such
free negroes as desired to emigrate. In 1826, upon the petition of the
Societies, the Legislature of Virginia made its first appropriation to
assist in their work. In addition to those in Virginia, Auxiliary
Societies were organized in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Kentucky.
In 1828 the Colonization Society of Virginia was established and
thereafter Virginians directed their energies largely through this
Virginia organization. John Marshall was elected President of the
Virginia Society, and James Madison, James Monroe, John Tyler and
William H. Broadnax, were among its Vice-Presidents.
By an act passed in 1850 the General Assembly of Virginia appropriated
the sum of $30,000.00 per annum for five years for the transportation
and sustenance of free negroes who desired to emigrate. Certain
qualifications of the measure limited its effectiveness, and in 1853,
the Virginia Colonization Society secured its repeal and the enactment
of a new law appropriating $30,000.00 per annum for five years, with
much more liberal provisions as to the method of its expenditure.
Private benevolence supplemented the state. The reports of the Society
show that during the years 1850-51-52 private contributions from the
people of Virginia aggregated over $21,000.00.[85]
The work of the Society was endorsed by the churches and more and more
it assumed the character of a Christian enterprise. It was commended
because it brought relief to Virginia, blessings to the ex-slaves,
greater hope of freedom to those still in bondage, and carried
Christianity and civilization to Africa. Among the first of many white
men who gave their lives to the cause of colonization was Samuel J.
Mills, who died at sea on his way home from Africa. Mills was the
leader in the band of students at Williams College, Massachusetts, so
well known for their missionary zeal and labours, and hence has a
double claim upon our gratitude.