Mary A. Walker (b. circa 1830 - d. ?)
MSA SC 5496-51522
Maryland State Colonization Society Emigrant to Liberia from Caroline
County, 1835
Biography:
Mary Adeline Walker was the freeborn daughter of Luke and Ann Walker, manumitted slaves from Caroline County. Mary had eight brothers and sisters; the two eldest, Thomas and Laura Ann, had had their freedom purchased by their father. Her remaining siblings—George, Mahalah, William, Joseph, Elizabeth, and Allen—were all free born.1
On December 24 1835, the family, including Mary's fourteen-month old nephew, John Smith, departed for Liberia, where Luke hoped to set up a saw mill.2 The Walkers sailed from Baltimore on the brig Fortune, arriving at Cape Palmas, Liberia on February 4, 1836.3 By the time that the colony's first census was conducted in 1837, Luke was working as a carpenter, and all of the Walkers had survived acclimation to the new land.4 However, the family did not remain in Liberia for long. Luke became disillusioned by the frequent material shortages and lack of opportunities in the new colony. In June 1837, Luke and his family returned to the United States on the Niobe. Colonial officials welcomed his departure, believing that his attitude demoralized the colonists as well as dissuaded potential settlers from coming to Liberia.5
By December 1837, the family probably lived in Baltimore where Luke
owned a grocery store in the Fell's Point area.6 In 1850, many
of the Walkers were living in New York City in the home of Lewis Walker,
who was probably a relative. They included Mary's mother, Ann, and siblings,
Thomas, William, George, Elizabeth, Allen, and Mahala. Mary, who would
have been twenty years old, was not a member of the household but may have
been married and living in her own home by this time.7
2. Hall, Richard L. On Afric’s Shore: A History of Maryland in Liberia, 1834-1857. (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2003), 156.
3. Ibid, 453.
5. Hall, 453.
6. "Luke Walker." Maryland Colonization Journal, December 1837, Vol. 1, No. 13, p. 54.
7. U.S. CENSUS BUREAU (Census Record, MD) for Ann Walker, 1850, New York County, 1st District, 8th Ward New York City, Page 235a, Lines 37-42. Page 235b, Line 1.
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