During the 1800s, some free people of color and formerly enslaved people emigrated out of North Carolina. Many went north or to Haiti, and quite a few went to Liberia. Join host John Horan, former intern LaWanda McCullor and podcast regulars, Annabeth Poe and Katie Crickmore on this episode. Listen as the crew focuses on several letters and wills housed at the State Archives of North Carolina recounting the experience of moving out of the country.  

The podcast team also speaks to Dr. Claude Clegg, who holds a joint appointment in the Department of History and the Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies at UNC Chapel Hill. Learn as Dr. Clegg discusses the American Colonization Society in the 1800s, what motivated the emigration to Liberia, and connects it to Activist Marcus Garvey and the Back-to-Africa movement from the 1900s.  

Primary Sources 

Private Collections. Pattie Mordecai Collection, 1784-1876. “Malinda Rex Letter,” 1839. State Archives of North Carolina; Raleigh, N.C. Record ID: PC.185. https://appx.archives.ncdcr.gov//solrDetailPages/series/NCA/Series_detail.html?fq=seriesRid:756464. 

County Records. Chowan County. Wills. Mary Bissell, 1836. CR.024.801. https://appx.archives.ncdcr.gov//solrDetailPages/series/NCA/Series_detail.html?fq=seriesRid:801756. 

Southern Historical Collection. John Kimberly Papers, 1821-1938. “Susan Capehart Letter.” University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Wilson Special Collections Library. Collection Number: 00398. https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/00398/. 

Secondary Sources 

Clegg, Claude Andrew, III. The Price of Liberty: African Americans and the Making of Liberia. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004. 

Mitchell, Memory F. “Off to Africa – with Judicial Blessing.” The North Carolina Historical Review 53, no. 3 (July 1976), 265-287. 

Mitchell, Memory F. “Freedom Brings Problems: Letters from the McKays and the Nelsons in Liberia.” The North Carolina Historical Review 70, no. 4 (October 1993), 430-465. 

Mitchell, Memory F. and Thornton W. Mitchell. “The Philanthropic Bequests of John Rex of Raleigh: Part I - Bon Voyage and a Lawsuit.” The North Carolina Historical Review 49, no. 3 (July 1972), 254-279. 

“Claude A. Clegg III.” University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill College of Arts and Sciences History Department. https://history.unc.edu/faculty-members/claude-clegg/.