From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)
Ajax Brig Bound for Liberia, Africa, 1833
(start date: 1833 - end date: 1843)In April of 1833, the Ajax brig was loaded with African American passengers, all bound for Liberia, Africa. The voyage was sanctioned by the Kentucky Colonization Society that paid $2,300 toward the passengers' fares. The brig left from Louisville, KY, with African American families from the counties of Adair, Bourbon, Fayette, Logan, Mercer, and a few other counties.
The passengers included a number of those who were formerly enslaved to Major Richard Bibb in Logan County, KY. Also aboard the ship were the formerly enslaved Alfred F. Russell and his mother Mily, both had been owned by the Mary Owen Todd Russell Wickliffe family in Lexington, KY. It is thought that Mily died from cholera on the Ajax brig. Her son Alfred F. Russell would complete the voyage and later became Vice President of Liberia and the tenth President (1883-1884) when he completed the term of President A. W. Gardiner.
While aboard the Ajax brig, it would be a few months before Alfred Russell and the other passengers arrived in Liberia. Along the route, there was a stop in New Orleans, LA. The Ajax left New Orleans on April 20, 1833, and it was soon realized that there was an outbreak of cholera on the brig.
A week or so later, the ship was forced to pull in at Key West, FL, due to the number of sick and dying passengers from the cholera. It was estimated by the New York Commercial Advertiser that there were 30-40 deaths. In addition to the deaths on the brig, there were nine deaths from cholera in the city of Key West. The Ajax brig left Key West, FL, on May 16, 1833.
The Ajax arrived in Monrovia, Liberia, on July 11, 1833. The ship had initially had at least 150 persons that included 148 African American passengers from Kentucky (99), Ohio (41), Tennessee (5), Louisiana (2), and Illinois (1). Fifteen of the passengers were free-born and 133 had been emancipated with the agreement that they would permanently live in Liberia, Africa. There were 70 children under the age of 10. The Ajax brig arrived in Liberia, Africa, with 120 passengers.
At the end of July 1833, it was reported in the "Marine List" in The Evening Post that the brig Ajax from New Orleans with emigrants for Liberia, all well. Of the 148 African American passengers on the Ajax in 1833, most had died by 1843 when there was a census count of 104 deaths from cholera, African fever and other diseases, old age, illness, and other unknown causes.
Sources:
"Painful intelligence." National Banner and Nashville Daily Advertiser, 27 June 1833, p.3; "Marine List." The Evening Post, 31 July 1833, p.2; Michael Morrow. "Bibb slaves sent to Liberia in Africa in 1832." The Logan Journal, 01 January [2009?] (online); A Concise History of the Commencement, Progress and Present Condition of the American Colonies in Liberia by Samuel Wilkeson.
Tables showing the number of emigrants and recaptured Africans sent to the colony of Liberia by the Government of the United States ... Together with a Census of the Colony ... September, 1843, ... published in Washington, 1845; The Political and Legislative History of Liberia by Charles Henry Huberich; see "Manumitted Slaves Shipped" on p.174 in History of the Ohio Falls Cities and their counties, v.1, L. A. Williams & Co., 1882; The Conquest of Cholera by John Sharpe Chambers.
Some of the names of the African American passengers who were to leave on the Ajax brig can be found in the Alphabetical Index to the African Repository from volume one to volume ten, both inclusive by James C. Dunn. Information about the preparations in contracting the Ajax brig to sail to Liberia, and details of the voyage, can be found in The African Repository and Colonial Journal, v.9, 1834, and other issues of the journal.