Catharine White (b. circa 1826 - d. ?)
MSA SC 5496-51342
Maryland State Colonization Society Emigrant to Liberia from Caroline County, 1832

Biography:

Catharine was born free to Willoughby and Sarah White, freeborn blacks of Caroline County.¹ In 1832, the Whites were enumerated on Caroline County's Free Negro Census, where they indicated a desire to emigrate to Liberia.²  Later that year, Catharine emigrated from Maryland to Liberia with her parents and five sisters: Maria, Mary, Amy and Eleanor, and Hester, on the ship Lafayette.³ Departing from Baltimore on December 7 or 9, 1832, they arrived in Monrovia, Liberia on February 7, 1833 before settling in Caldwell, Liberia. In 1834, the family moved to Cape Palmas, where Willoughby died suddenly in 1835.⁴   According to the colony's census, it appears that Catharine lived with her sister, Mary Polk, from at least 1839 through 1843, possibly because of the turmoil caused by their father’s death.^{5, 6, 7} On April 27, 1852, Catharine married Jonathan W. Cooper, a carpenter.^{8, 9}

2. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Papers of the Maryland State Colonization Society), Free Negro Census, Caroline County, 1832, MSA SC 5977, Film Number M 13255-1, Lines 829-838.

3. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Papers of the Maryland State Colonization Society), Manumission Lists, 1832-1839, MSA SC 5977, Film Number M 13248-1, Emigrants Line 35-42.

4. Hall, Richard L. On Afric’s Shore: A History of Maryland in Liberia, 1834-1857. (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2003), p. 444.

5. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Papers of the Maryland State Colonization Society), Subscribers Reports Census, 1817-1902, MSA SC 5977, Film Number M 13247-1, 1839 Census.

6. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Papers of the Maryland State Colonization Society), Subscribers Reports Census, 1817-1902, MSA SC 5977, Film Number M 13247-1, 1840 Census.

7. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Papers of the Maryland State Colonization Society), Subscribers Reports Census, 1817-1902, MSA SC 5977, Film Number M 13247-1, 1843 Census.

8. Hall, p. 444.

9. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Papers of the Maryland State Colonization Society), Subscribers Reports Census, 1817-1902, MSA SC 5977, Film Number M 13247-1, 1852 Census, Lines 737-738.
 

Return to Catharine White's Introductory Page
 
 
 
 

© Copyright  Maryland State Archives