Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

Samuel Gibson (b. circa 1827 - 1842)
MSA SC 5496-51357
Maryland State Colonization Society Emigrant to Liberia from Talbot County, 1835

Biography:

Samuel Gibson was a free resident of Talbot County, who emigrated from Maryland to Liberia with his parents Jacob and Rebecca Gibson, siblings Joseph, Henry, Garrison, Mary Ann and Louisa, and cousin Ellen Gibson.1, 2 The Gibsons left Baltimore on the schooner Harmony on June 28, 1835 and arrived at Cape Palmas, Liberia on August 23, 1835.3 Samuel's father, Jacob, died in 1836, and his mother married a William Delany on January 19, 1837.4, 5 The 1838 census recorded Samuel and his siblings living with his mother and step-father.6 However, by1840, his mother was again widowed  and raising her children alone.7, 8 Tragedy struck the family again when Samuel drowned on December 6, 1842 at about the age of fifteen years.9



1. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Papers of the Maryland State Colonization Society), Free Negro Census, Talbot County, 1832, MSA SC 5977, Film Number M 13255-1, Lines 852-858.

2. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Papers of the Maryland State Colonization Society), Manumission Lists, 1832-1839, MSA SC 5977, Film Number M 13248-1, Emigrants, Lines 252-254. Lines 255-260.

3. Hall, Richard L. On Afric’s Shore: A History of Maryland in Liberia, 1834-1857. (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2003), 451.

4. Ibid, 450.

5. Maryland Colonization Journal, September 1837, Vol. 1, No.12, p. 52.

6. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Papers of the Maryland State Colonization Society), Subscribers Reports Census, 1817-1902, MSA SC 5977, Film Number M 13247-1, 1838 Census.

7. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Papers of the Maryland State Colonization Society), Subscribers Reports Census, 1817-1902, MSA SC 5977, Film Number M 13247-1, 1839 Census.

8. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Papers of the Maryland State Colonization Society), Subscribers Reports Census, 1817-1902, MSA SC 5977, Film Number M 13247-1, 1840 Census.

9. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Papers of the Maryland State Colonization Society), Subscribers Reports Census, 1817-1902, MSA SC 5977, Film Number M 13247-1, Deaths in the Colony, 1842-1843.
 

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