While some African Americans sought opportunity in the West, others believed that only by returning  to Africa could they better their lives.  The Liberian Joint Stock Steam Ship Company claimed to have enrolled 150,000 people ready to sail; however, the number who actually left was far smaller.

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Rooms of The Liberia

Joint Stock Steamship Company

Charleston, S.C.

November 6th, 1877

To the President of the Republic of Liberia,

Dear Sir,—This will inform you that the colored people of America and especially of the Southern State, desire to return to their fatherland.

We wish to come bringing our wives and little ones with what wealth and education, arts, and refinement we have been able to acquire in the land of our exile and in the house of bondage. We come pleading in the name of our common Father that our beloved brethren and sisters of the Republic which you have the high and distinguished honor of presiding over, will grant unto us a home with you and yours in the land of our Fathers. We would have addressed you before on this subject, but we have waited to see what would come of the sudden up-heaval of this movement. We are now in position to say, if you will grant us a home in your Republic where we can live and aid in building up a nationality of Africans, we will come, and in coming we will be prepared to take care of ourselves and not be burdensome to the Government. By our present plan of operations, we will be able to furnish food, medicine and clothing to last us for from six months to a year. 

We desire to ask you the question, can we come? Will you be able to furnish us with a receptacle, where we could spend the first few weeks of our arrival, or will it be necessary for us to build our own? Would it be convenient for us to settle on the St. Paul’s river? We hope to hear your decision at your earliest convenience.

Yours, for and in behalf of 150,000 exiles enrolled for Liberria.

Benj. F.Porter

Pres. Liberia J.S.S.S. Co.

Source: African Repository 53 (1877), 75. Reprinted in Foner, Philip S., and Ronald L. Lewis, eds. Black Worker: A Documentary History, Volume II: The Black Worker During the Era of the National Labor Union. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1978.

Document 4.10.12: “150,000 Exiles Enrolled for Liberia,” November 1877