Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

James Kiah (b. circa 1806 – d. 1837)
MSA SC 5496-51338
Maryland State Colonization Society Emigrant to Liberia from Dorchester County, 1832

Biography:

James Kiah was born free to Sarah, a slave manumitted by Levin Bale.1 A sawyer, he emigrated from Dorchester County to Liberia with his wife, Charlotte.2 The couple sailed from Baltimore to Liberia on the ship Lafayette on December 7 or 9, arriving in Monrovia, Liberia on February 7, 1833. They later settled in Caldwell, Liberia, where James drowned in 1837.3


1. DORCHESTER COUNTY COURT (Certificates of Freedom) 1806-1851 C689, 1830, p. 68.

2. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Papers of the Maryland State Colonization Society), Emigrants, 1832-1839, MSA SC 5977, Film Number M 13248-1, Lines 168-169.

3. Hall, Richard L. On Afric’s Shore: A History of Maryland in Liberia, 1834-1857. (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2003), p. 440.

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