Lott Cary
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Lott Cary (1780-November 10, 1828) was an African American slave, born in Charles City County, Virginia. He became a free man, Baptist minister, and physician, and was instrumental in the founding of the Colony of Liberia in Africa. He also became the first American Baptist missionary to Africa.
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[edit] Youth, education, buying his freedom
Lott Cary was born into humble surroundings in Charles City County, Virginia. It soon became apparent that he was exceptionally bright and energetic.
In 1804, his owner, John Bowry, a Methodist minister, hired Cary out in the City of Richmond about 25 miles away from his home, where he joined the First Baptist Church of Richmond in 1807. Beginning his education by learning to read the Bible, Cary later attended a small school for slaves made up of twenty young men taught by Deacon William Crane who had come from Newark, New Jersey in 1812, opened a shoe store and joined the First Baptist Church. Crane's school met three evenings each week to learn reading, writing, arithmetic and the Bible.
As he became educated, Lott Cary rose from working as a common laborer to become one of the best shipping-clerks in the Richmond tobacco warehouses along Tobacco Row. Because of his diligent and valuable work, Cary was often rewarded by his master with five-dollar notes. He was also permitted to collect and sell small bags of waste tobacco for his own profit. With this money, in 1813, he purchased his own freedom and that of his two children for $850. However, as a free man, he continued to be both industrious and frugal with his money, and he continued to work in Richmond. He became a Baptist minister in 1819.
[edit] American Colonization Society
In the early 19th century, about 2 million African Americans lived in the United States, of which 200,000 were free persons. In 1816, the American Colonization Society was established by Robert Finley with the goal of allowing former slaves to return to Africa and establish a colony there. The Society was supported by an unlikely coalition of philanthropists, members of the clergy and abolitionists who wanted to free African slaves and their descendants and provide them with the opportunity to return to Africa, and the slave owners who feared the free former slaves and wanted to expel them from the country.
[edit] Colony of Liberia
By 1821, Cary had accumulated a sum sufficiently large to enable him to pay his own expenses as a member of the colony sent out to the African coast. In cooperation with the First Baptist Church of Richmond, the American Baptist Board of Foreign Missions, and the Richmond African Baptist Missionary Society (which he had a part in forming), he became the first American Baptist missionary to Africa.
In the new colony of Liberia, Cary served the leadership as a counselor, physician, and pastor. He established Providence Baptist Church in Monrovia, Liberia, and several schools. In 1826, he was elected vice-agent of the colonization society. Early life in the Colony of Liberia was full of danger. The native Africans resisted the expansion of the settlers, resulting in many armed conflicts. They were also at risk of attack from slave-traders.
In August 1828, Cary became acting governor of Liberia when the previous governor died after designating Cary his successor. However, Lott Cary's role in the Colony of Liberia was cut tragically short when he died two days after an accident which occurred on November 8, 1828. He had been making cartridges in anticipation of an attack from slave-traders, when an accidental explosion fatally injured him and seven of his companions.
[edit] Heritage, Memorial
The remarkable story of Lott Cary has been often used as inspiration for young African-American school children. Despite starting life as a common slave in a rural county with few apparent opportunities, he became educated and industrious, bought his own freedom, became both a minister and a physician, and helped found a whole new country.
His mission and memory have been kept alive through the work of the Lott Cary Baptist Foreign Mission Convention, based in Washington, DC.
The church he founded in Monrovia celebrated its 175th anniversary in 2001.
Lott Cary Road in Charles City County is named for him.
The Lott Cary House, where he was born as a slave, is a historical location (although the structure is still in use as a private residence). It is marked by a Virginia historical marker, V27 Lott Cary Birthplace, which is located at the intersection of Virginia State Highways 155 and 602.
In his honor, the Board of Supervisors of James City County, Virginia (not far from his place of birth) declared March 21, 2001, to be Lott Cary Day in the county.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- link to Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper article from 2002
- Sketch of the Life of Lott Cary, by Ralph Randolph Gurley, electronic edition from University of North Carolina
- Liberia - Entry on Liberia from the 1907 Catholic Encyclopedia.
- History of Liberia - Offers a history of Liberia from 1461 to the present.
