Slave
Law in 1850, there began a trek of colored people out of the Northern
States into Canada.[6] Before the end of 1850 several thousand of
these people had crossed the border and the situation was one that
called not only for the aid of generous Canadians but for all that
leaders among their own people could do for them. It was Henry Bibb's
belief that the future of the people of color in Canada depended upon
getting them settled on the land and his mind turned to the
possibilities of establishing a distinctly Negro colony on land that
might be secured as a grant from the Canadian government or, if
necessary, purchased from the government as had been done in the case
of the Buxton settlement established by Rev. William King in what is
now Southwestern Ontario. Bibb succeeded in organizing his
colonization society, its object being "to assist the refugees from
American slavery to obtain permanent homes and to promote their
social, moral, physical and intellectual development." It was proposed
that 50,000 acres of land should be purchased from the government at
an estimated cost of about two dollars an acre, the purchase money to
be derived partly from contributions and partly from the sale of the
land. Each family settling was to receive 25 acres, five acres to be
free of cost provided they cleared and cultivated it within three
years from the time of occupation. The remaining twenty acres was to
be paid for in nine annual installments. Only landless refugees were
to receive grants, transfer except after fifteen years occupation was
forbidden and all lands vacated by removal or extinction of families
were to revert to the parent society. Money returned to the society
was to be spent on schools, for payment of teachers and for the
purchase of new land. The whole business of the organization was to be
in the hands of a board of trustees.[7]

At the beginning of 1851 Bibb had established a little newspaper,
published bi-monthly and known as _The Voice of the Fugitive_. In the
issue of March 12, 1851, he raises the question as to what the
fugitives stand most in need of and holds that charity is but a
handicap to their progress and that they must work for their own
support, preferably on the land. The recommendation of a recent
convention at Sandwich is quoted to the effect that the refugees
should go into agriculture, and that to this end an effort should be
made to secure a grant of land from the Canadian government,