Julia Ann Harper (b. circa 1832 - d. 1833)
MSA SC 5496-51335
Maryland State Colonization Society Emigrant to Liberia from Caroline
County, 1832
Biography:
Julia Ann Harper and her older brother, Lafayette, were born free to Stepney and Ann Harper in Caroline County, Maryland.1 A blacksmith, Stepney Harper purchased the freedom of himself, his wife Ann, and a son, George Washington Harper. By 1829, the family was deeply in debt and forced to sell almost all of their belongings to pay creditors.2 On the 1832 Caroline County Census of Free Negroes, Stepney and his family expressed an interest in emigrating to Liberia, making them among the Maryland State Colonization Society's earliest emigrants.3 Stepney and Ann's children were listed as a nine-year old boy, Lafayette, and a one-year old girl, Sidney (perhaps another name for Julia Ann). George Washington Harper's name does not appear on this census, suggesting that he had passed away. On December 7 or 9, 1832, Stepney, Ann, Lafayette, and Julia Ann sailed from Baltimore to Liberia on the ship Lafayette, arriving in Monrovia, Liberia on February 7, 1833.4 Laura Ann Sharpe, a freeborn resident of Caroline County, was also associated with the Harper household, perhaps as a housekeeper.5 The family soon settled in Caldwell, Liberia, where the infant Julia Ann died of fever shortly after their arrival in 1833.6, 7
2. CAROLINE COUNTY COURT (Land Records), Book Q, 1827-1830, MSA CE 94-15, folio 235.
3. Ibid.
4. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Papers of the Maryland State Colonization Society), Emigrants, 1832-1839, MSA SC 5977, Film Number M 13248-1, Lines 30-32. Line 33.
5. Hall, Richard L. On Afric’s Shore: A History of Maryland in Liberia, 1834-1857. (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2003), p. 443.
6. Hall, p. 439.
Return
to Julia Ann Harper's Introductory Page
|
Tell Us What You Think About the Maryland State Archives Website!
|