lly in Cromwell's "The Negro in American History,"
44.

[83] _The Liberator_, 1833.

[84] _The African Repository_, XXIII, 117.

[85] United States Census, 1850 and 1860.

DOCUMENTS

TRANSPLANTING FREE NEGROES TO OHIO FROM 1815 TO 1858[1]

Brown county was one of the first parts of Ohio to be invaded by free
Negroes. In the "Historical Collections of Ohio" Howe says:

"In the county (Brown) there are two large settlements of colored
persons, numbering about 500 each. One of these is 3 miles north of
Georgetown; the other is in the NE. part of the county, about 16
miles distant. They emigrated from Virginia, in the year 1818, and
were originally the slaves of Samuel Gist, who manumitted and settled
them here, upon two large surveys of land. Their situation,
unfortunately, is not prosperous."--Howe, Historical Collections of
Ohio, 71.

Referring to these settlements some years later another historian said:

"The colored settlement in Eagle Township was made in 1818, by a
number of the former slaves of Samuel Gist, a wealthy banker,
resident of London, England, and an extensive land-owner and
slaveholder in the United States.

"It is not known that Gist ever visited his plantation here, or that
he ever saw a single slave that cultivated his lands, but all was
left to the management of resident agents appointed by him. These
lands lay in the counties of Hanover, Amherst, Goslin (Goochland),
and Henrico, Va., and included some of the first plantations in the
'Old Dominion.'

"In 1808 desiring to make ample provision for the future of those who
had so abundantly filled his coffers by their servitude, Gist made a
will, the intent of which was certainly benevolent, but which has been
most wretchedly executed. This document of fifty-eight closely written
pages is a study within itself. It begins thus: This is the last will
and testament of me Samuel Gist, of Gower street, in the Parish of St.
Giles, in the city of London, of the county of Middlesex, England.

"After bequeathing various valuable estates, large sums of money to
his only daughter, he designated what property and sums of money
shall fall to the numerous persons who have been in his employ, and
most explicitly does he provide for his slaves in Virginia, who
numbered nearly one thousand souls!