Ralph Randolph Gurley (May 26, 1797 – July 30, 1872) was an American clergyman, an advocate of the separation of the races, and a major force for 50 years in the

American Colonization Society The American Colonization Society (ACS), initially the Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America until 1837, was an American organization founded in 1816 by Robert Finley to encourage and support the migration of freebor ...

. It offered passage to free black Americans to the ACS colony in west Africa. It bought land from chiefs of the indigenous Africans. Because of his influence in fundraising and education about the ACS, Gurley is considered one of the founders of Liberia, which he named.

Biography

Gurley was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, and gained an early education. He graduated from

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

, B.A. in 1818. He moved to Washington, D.C., where he was licensed to preach as a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

. On May 25, 1827, he married Eliza McLellan (1810?-1872). - (Note: different spelling in Gurley source - Eliza McLellen (1812-1872, uncertain). They had a large family, including William Henry Fitzhugh (1820) (this seems questionable as this birth was seven years before the couple married), Felicia Liberia Heneaus (1829), Ralph Randolph (1832-1833), Eliza (1834), Julia (1835), Mary Custis (1836), Ralph Randolph Gurley (b. 1841), Archibald Alexander (1841), Marion Ann Muirhead (1844), John McDonough "Mackie" (1846), and Caroline Rose Gurley (1847-died in infancy). From 1822, Gurley began to work with the

. Although he was never ordained as a minister, Gurley was also appointed to serve as Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives for the 21st and 22nd Congresses (1829-1833), and again for the 30th and 31st (1847-1851), opening each day's proceedings with a prayer.

American Colonization Society

Starting as a young man of about 25, Gurley acted as the agent and secretary of the

from 1822, soon after its founding, until 1872. By that time the West African colony founded by the Society had declared independence in 1847 as the Republic of Liberia. The ACS was founded as an uneasy alliance of abolitionists and slaveholders. Members of each group were seeking solutions to the place of free people of color or free blacks in United States society. Together members of this group proposed to relocate free American blacks to a new colony in West Africa. Chapters of the ACS were set up in several southern states, some of which initially funded their own relocation efforts to property they purchased in contiguous parcels along the African coast. Eventually they allowed it to be absorbed into the larger ACS enterprise. While some ACS members referred to this transportation of blacks as "repatriation", by this time most blacks in America, including slaves, were native born. Most free blacks, some of whom had achieved freedom before the Revolution, wanted to gain equal civil rights in the nation they regarded as their own. But over time, the ACS did attract some black pioneers willing to settle in West Africa. Because of continued discrimination against free blacks in American society, and especially among the slave societies of the South, where they were thought to threaten the stability of the slave regimes, even some abolitionists believed that free American blacks and newly manumitted slaves might be better off founding their own society in West Africa, with the eventual goal of self-government. Such members believed that if alternative settlement for free blacks were available, with financial support by the ACS, more slaveholders might be encouraged to manumit their slaves. After the

Nat Turner Nat Turner's Rebellion, historically known as the Southampton Insurrection, was a rebellion of enslaved Virginians that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831.Schwarz, Frederic D.1831 Nat Turner's Rebellion" ''American Heri ...

slave rebellion of 1831, most Southern states repealed the already limited rights of free blacks and free people of color, and strengthened laws meant to control them through banning education, worship without white ministers, and group assemblies, for instance. Manumissions were sharply limited, generally available only by individual act of the state legislatures for each person to be freed. This procedure was so difficult that few slaveholders pursued freeing their slaves. During the first ten years of Gurley's agency, the annual income of the society increased from $778 to $40,000. He traveled widely to deliver addresses in its behalf, as it needed funds to support the ships and relocation expenses of new settlers to Monrovia. He is considered one of the founders of Liberia, which he named. Gurley also edited the public-relations organ of the ACS, the '' African Repository and Colonial Journal''. He sailed to England to solicit aid in the work of colonization. As in the British effort, American missionaries accompanied the settlers to the major settlement,

Monrovia Monrovia () is the capital city of the West African country of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic coast and as of the 2008 census had 1,010,970 residents, home to 29% of Liberia’s total population. As th ...

, in order to aid in converting the indigenous Africans they encountered. He continued to express the highest motives for the project, even after Liberia gained independence from the ACA: :"How should Virginians universally rejoice in the great evidences of Civilization growing & expanding on the west coast of Africa, through civilized Africans sent forth from their homes!" (letter, November 4, 1857) The British had earlier established their own colony in West Africa, at

Freetown Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and po ...

(now the capital of

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...

), for resettlement of blacks from

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, Nova Scotia ( Black Loyalists had been settled there from the American colonies after the Revolutionary War), and

Jamaican Maroons Jamaican Maroons descend from Africans who freed themselves from slavery on the Colony of Jamaica and established communities of free black people in the island's mountainous interior, primarily in the eastern parishes. Africans who were ensl ...

. In time, the British also resettled here captives who had been liberated from illegal slave ships after the banning of the Atlantic slave trade. Former President

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...

was among prominent American slaveholders who supported the work of the ACS. He bequeathed $2000 in his will through Gurley to the Society. Gurley visited Africa three times: in 1824 for the ACS, in order to resolve a dispute between the settlers and the appointed governor,

Jehudi Ashmun Jehudi Ashmun (April 21, 1794 – August 25, 1828) was an American religious leader and social reformer from New England who became involved in the American Colonization Society. It founded the colony of Liberia in West Africa as a place to rese ...

; in 1849 representing the US government, in order to report to it on the newly independent republic; and late in life, in 1868, on an independent trip on an ACS ship in a desire to see Liberia again, his life's work. Gurley also wrote a biography, ''Life of

'' (1835), about the secretary of the Society who served as an early governor of the colony. He reported his ''Mission to England for the American Colonization Society'' (1841), and wrote an encomium, the ''Life and Eloquence of Reverend Sylvester Larned'' (1844). In his biography of Ashmun (1835), Gurley wrote

References

External links

Sketch_of_the_Life_of_the_Rev._Lott_Cary
_in_"Life_of_Jehudi_Ashmun,_Late_Colonial_Agent_in_Liberia.".html" ;"title="Lott Cary">Sketch of the Life of the Rev. Lott Cary
in "Life of Jehudi Ashmun, Late Colonial Agent in Liberia."">Lott Cary">Sketch of the Life of the Rev. Lott Cary
in "Life of Jehudi Ashmun, Late Colonial Agent in Liberia."Washington: James C. Dunn, 1835.
"Ralph Randolph Gurley", ''Appleton's Encyclopedia''
quoted in the entry, Library of Virginia

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gurley, Ralph Randolph 1797 births 1872 deaths People from Lebanon, Connecticut Yale College alumni Chaplains of the United States House of Representatives American colonization movement 19th-century American clergy

Biography

American Colonization Society

References

Further reading

External links