Thomas N. Brown (b. circa 1814 - d. ?)
MSA SC 5496-51348
Maryland State Colonization Society Emigrant to Liberia from Queen
Anne's County, 1835
Biography:
Thomas Brown was a free-born farmer from Queen Anne’s County.1 He departed Baltimore on the brig Fortune on December 24, 1835, arriving in Cape Palmas, Liberia on February 4, 1836.2 Although it appears that Thomas was a single man when he traveled to Liberia, at some point he married a woman named Mary. A boy named William (b. circa 1835) lived with the Browns for several years.3, 4 The 1848 Liberia census even listed him as Thomas' child while William is noted as an apprentice on the 1849 census.5, 6 However, Thomas' wife, Mary (b. circa 1825), appears to be to young to be the mother of William. Thus, this boy is likely William Delaney, the son of William and Maria Delaney (or Dulany), who traveled to Liberia on the Fortune with Thomas.7 There is further evidence that points to the likelihood that Thomas knew the Delaneys well. Since Thomas' name appears immediately before the enumeration of the Delaney family on the 1837 census, Thomas probably lived with or near them.8 Maria Delaney died of diarrhea in 1837 and her husband William Delaney does not appear in the record after 1838, suggesting that he may also have died and left the young William Delaney as an orphan.9 For the next decade, it appears that William Delaney lived in the household of his step-mother, Rebecca Gibson Delaney, until her death in 1847.10, 11 At that time, Thomas Brown may have adopted William Delaney.
Mary was likely the mother of Thomas' younger children, William (b. December 27, 1842), Eliza A. (b. circa 1844), Sarah R. (b. circa 1848), and Charles H. Brown (b. circa 1850).12, 13 Thomas' occupation was variously listed as a farmer and a sawyer. In 1848, he cultivated two acres of land, raising crops of potatoes and casadas on the majority of the land. He also grew a small amount of coffee, cotton, orange, and plaintain trees.14
In 1849, Brown wrote to James Hall asking for permission to visit the United States in order to persuade others to emigrate. Brown explained, “I have been here now about thirteen years and no one has come here from my part of the country since I came. I wish to come in and try if I can not bring out a brother and some other relatives of mine.”15 He traveled to Maryland in 1850, returning from Maryland on the Liberia packet in December of the same year. It is unclear if he was successful in recruiting other blacks to emigrate. No one from Queen Anne’s County or with the surname “Brown” traveled to Liberia with him, suggesting that he was unable to convince family members to emigrate.16
Brown and his family were still living in Liberia in 1852, when the
census listed his occupation as a sawyer.17
2. Hall, Richard L. On Afric’s Shore: A History of Maryland in Liberia, 1834-1857. (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2003), p. 452.
3. Ibid, 453.
9. Hall, 452-453.
11. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Papers of the Maryland State Colonization Society), Subscribers Reports Census, 1817-1902, MSA SC 5977, Film Number M 13247-1, 1843a Census.1843b.
15. Hall, p. 596n50
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