In December of 1829, nine members of the Lucas family of Loudoun County left Northern Virginia for Hampton Roads, where they boarded a brig bound for the western coast of Africa. Two of the men, Mars and Jesse Lucas, had recently been emancipated by Albert and Townsend Heaton of Loudoun County. The two sets of brothers began a years-long correspondence about family back home in Loudoun and the challenges of life in Liberia. Seven of those letters are in the Loudoun Museum in Leesburg, Virginia.
What follows are excerpts (and links to copies of) the letters, the locations mentioned within them, and a little about the events that led the Lucas family and other emancipated people to move across the Atlantic for a new life.
PLEASE NOTE: To read this Story Map, use the dots or arrows on the left side of your screen. For pages with more content than may be viewable on your display, either use the mouse scroll wheel or click anywhere on the left side of the page and use the down arrow.
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Loudoun County, Virginia
Loudoun County was carved out of Fairfax County in 1757 during the French and Indian War, and named for General John Campbell, the 4th Earl of Loudoun and Commander-in-Chief of British and Colonial forces. 1
The geography of Loudoun influenced settlement. The lower eastern half was primarily granted to large plantation owners from Tidewater Virginia, while the rolling valleys west and north of the Bull Run-Catoctin Mountain ranges were mostly settled by Scots-Irish, Germans, and Quakers. This diversity impacted both the development of the county as well as opinions of slavery; while many planters depended upon it, most Quakers were adamantly opposed. 2
PLEASE NOTE: The map to the right is an interactive map of the original Loudoun County land grants from the 1700s and 1800s. Zoom, pan, and click for more information.
Additional interactive maps are available throughout this Story Map.
2 Charles P. Poland, Jr, From Frontier to Suburbia: Loudoun County, Virginia, One of America's Fastest Growing Counties. Heritage Books, Inc., 2005, pp. 6-7.
Manumission is the act of a slaveowner freeing a slave.
Virginia enacted several laws regarding manumission during the 18th and 19th centuries. While a 1782 act allowed for manumission, a 1793 act required that all free black people register with the Commonwealth as well as prevented them from moving to Virginia. In 1806, legislation was passed to require everyone who had been freed through manumission to leave the Commonwealth within a year or risk re-enslavement. 1
In 1816, the American Colonization Society was founded in Washington, D.C. at Brown's Hotel; a year later, an auxiliary was formed in Loudoun County. In 1824, the Loudoun Manumission and Emigration Society was organized by Quakers at the Oakdale Schoolhouse in Goose Creek (now called Lincoln) 3 . While members had different opinions and motivations, the two groups shared the common goal of offering a means by which formerly enslaved people could emigrate from Virginia.4
2 Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, American Colonization Society. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Accessed January 2016.
3 Asa Moore Janney and Werner Janney, Ye Meetg Hous Smal: A Short Account of FRIENDS in Loudoun County, Virginia: 1732-1980. Friends of Thomas Balch Library, 1980.
NOTE: Marie Tyler-McGraw's article, above, has a more comprehensive review and history of the Lucas-Heaton letters than what has been offered here. Additional research from McGraw, in partnership with Deborah Lee, can be found at Virginia Emigrants to Liberia, a website hosted by the Virginia Center for Digital History.
Right: Yardley Taylor, Loudoun County map 1853, Interactive map (fit to a modern base). Loudoun County Office of Mapping and Geographic Information, Accessed January 2016. Centered approximately on the location of the community of Goose Creek. Yardley Taylor was the first president of the Loudoun Emigration and Manumission Society.
"Brown's Hotel" (later called the David Hotel), from the Samuel August Mitchell "Plan of the City of Washington", 1886. Map from the David Rumsey Map Collection.
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Dr. James Heaton
James Heaton was a doctor in Loudoun County, who migrated from Pennsylvania as a young man. He married Lydia Osburn, the daughter of a prominent citizen and physician from western Loudoun County. 1 They lived in what is today Purcellville:
"The intersection of Main and Ninth streets was known as Heaton's Cross Roads. Near the northwest corner stood Exedra, the grandest of area houses, built for James Heaton about 1804. It became the home of three generations of Heaton doctors.
Exedra is classical Greek for "the sitting place". " 2
When Dr. Heaton died in 1824, he willed fourteen enslaved men, women, and children to family members, including his wife, Lydia, and his sons Townsend and Albert. Among those enslaved were brothers Jesse and Mars Lucas. 3
1 National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Woodgrove. Includes a history of the Osburn-Heaton families. Accessed January 2016. Link to PDF.
3 List of enslaved peoplefrom the estate inventory of Dr. James Heaton Loudoun County Will Book P, p. 63, 1824. Note that a Ned and a Solomon are listed; Mars and Lucas mention brothers by those names in their letters.
Right: Interactive map with imagery 1937 USDA Farm Survey. Loudoun County Office of Mapping and Geographic Information. Click the stars for location names.
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From Loudoun County to Monrovia
In 1829, the Loudoun Manumission and Emigration Society sent a group of emigrants to Hampton Roads. Among the number were several members of the Lucas family: 1
"Shortly after Christmas 1829 Mars and Jesse Lucas, Jesse’s wife, Amelia, their four small children, and two other women, Hannah and Mary Lucas, began a journey from Northern Virginia to Hampton Roads. There they boarded the brig Liberia and, with forty-nine other free blacks and manumitted slaves, prepared to sail to the colony of Liberia on the western coast of Africa." 2
1 It's not specifically known when the Lucas brothers obtained their freedom, although when Albert wrote his will in 1826, he specified that "after the decease of my mother Jesse my slave shall have his freedom". It was clearly after that date that he decided to allow Jesse to emigrate.Albert Heaton's Will. Loudoun County, Virginia, Will Book T, p. 45, 1826.
The first letter to reach Loudoun County was written by Jesse Lucas to Albert Heaton, dated March 10, 1830:
"I take the opportunity of writing you these few lines to inform you that myself and my family are in very good helth and I hope these few lines may find you the same."
Jesse was "sea-sick from the gulf to the Land"and "never saw as many dreadful sites" on the journey, including "a whale far off and two or three sharks".
The Lucases had settled in Caldwell on the St. Paul River, where Jesse reported that he had never seen so many fish, and described the many fruits available to them, including cassavas, which “may be baked or boiled or roasted, they will make a very good custard”. He asked that if they could please send a bushel of dried apples and a barrel each of tobacco and flour, he could give in return double the worth of each in camwood, ivory, and oranges. He also offered to send a pet monkey, should the Heatons wish.
This letter was the only time that Jesse addressed the letter with “Master”.
Jesse Lucas.original and copy of letter to Albert or Townsend Heaton.Caldwell, March 10th, 1830. Loudoun Museum collection.It's unknown when the copies were created, although a date on Mars' March 12th, 1830 letter suggests they may have been copied in 1929.
Note: It's not known where or how Jesse and Mars were educated, although a guess might be in the Heaton home. The Revised Code of Virginia 1819 made it illegal for enslaved people or free black people to gather in a meetinghouse or houses at night for any purpose or in schools by day or night in order to learn to read and write. 1 It remained legal to teach reading or writing in private homes, however, and many slaveholders who supported colonization taught their enslaved people to read and write to prepare them for freedom. 2
2 Deborah Lee, personal correspondence. March 2016.
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Caldwell, March 10th, 1830, continued
In the first letter that Jesse wrote to Albert, he included one addressed to his parents.
"Dear father and mother -
I take this opportunity of writing this few lines to inform that me and my family are in very good health and I hope this may be find you the same.”
He sent “love to all my brothers and sisters.” He asked of one brother – “Solomon you must buy me one or two dollars of the cheapest beads and send them by the first vessel and I will send you something much purtier than you ever saw.” He told his brothers of the many pretty girls in Caldwell, and finished with this:
"Mother Lukus your daughter-in-law remembers her love to you and all the family. Elizabeth remembers all her love to all her uncles and her cousins."
Jesse Lucas. original and copy of letter to his father and mother, enclosed with the letter on the previous page to the Heatons. Caldwell, March 10th, 1830. Loudoun Museum collection.
Caldwell is about 8 miles northeast of Monrovia, the capital city and an arrival point for emigrants who traveled to Liberia.
Right: interactive map of Caldwell and environs.
St. Pauls River, Liberia. Surveyed by Captain Kelly, 1867. Library of Congress. Link.
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Caldwell, March 12th, 1830
On March 12, 1830, Mars sent a letter to Townsend.
Mars also reported that he had been sea sick on the voyage over, that the passage had taken 43 days, and that “58 Emigrants arrived here in perfect good health and Spirits, we are still in a good state of good health so far". He found the locals “not very much given to industry”, but the place they were staying very pleasant, with good water. As had Jesse, he described the fruits and vegetables, and promised with his next letter “to give you a more exact account. my time in this country is been short."
He briefly described the town, and closed with the following:
"I wish you to give my best Respects to all your family and tell them I am well and doing well, likewise please to Remember me to all my Relations, please to answer this as soon as possible and send news of the Country. I have no more at present.
Yours very Respectfully,
Mars Lucas"
Mars Lucas. Letter to Townsend Heaton. Caldwell, March 12, 1830. Loudoun County Museum collection.
The next letter was written by Albert Heaton, and was likely misdated - while the letter has a date of April 29th, the envelope indicates it was sent on the brig Montgomery, which sailed on April 8th for Liberia.
Albert wrote:
"I embrace the earliest opportunity with which I am favoured to let you hear from your native home, and from your relations and friends, being far away in a distant country - separated by a vast ocean from them all and now amoung strangers, I know full well that you will rejoice and be happy to get any tidings from Old Loudoun County, in which you were born and in which you lived until that trying time when you took your leave for Liberia to enjoy that freedom which you could not enjoy here."
He offered this advice:
"- it is a source of great happiness to look back to former days which bring the recollection of fond parents, relatives, and friends, the good feelings you have had together, the concern you have each had for the happiness of the other, But to let the thoughts of them destroy your peace of mind is cruel to you & your relations, who only wish to hear of your happiness to make them so likewise. Think of yourselves and your family, and do every thing you can to make yourselves comfortable, prosperous and happy and in a few short years you may be able to recross the sea and come and visit them all and give vent to your feelings of joy on again seeing them - you have both gained a good name in this Country all voices unite in sounding your praise here and I have no doubt that you will soon let your fellow Liberians know that you deserve one where you are."
Albert Heaton. Letter to Jesse and Mars Lucas. Loudoun County, March or April 1830. Loudoun Museum collection.
In the June letter, Mars spoke of the hardships they encountered since being in Liberia, including illness and the death of Jesse's wife:
"I again take up my pen, to my satisfaction In communicating to you a few lines, letting you know, that I am still in the land of the living and enjoying reasonable health. I am glad to send that I have almost got clear of the fever, I had a very severe attakt of it. I am able to work a little now but very often has to stop, on account of the my headacks. Jesse and myself, to be house keepers, since the decease of his wife, his family is on a bettering state except his young child who remains very weak, it is almost gone to nothing. We do all our own Washing. Dureing our illness we had to hire a woman to wash and cooke but we saw that it would not suit us, So, we have not. hired any one since. I may state to you that I am much deceiv'd with this Country the reports is all a lie, mearly to encourage people to come to this Country. Time is very hard out here, any thing is very Dear and not to be had. They scarcely will allow us as much provision is a half grown child can eat, a man can eat up all his meat, all in one day. We only draw 1 lb of meat per week. 3 quarts meal 2 quarts of rice, that is weeks allowance."
He closed the letter with:
"Jesse and Mars,
sends their warmest Love to their old Mrs. and family. If you please to let My Father and Mother and brothers and sisters know that I am allmost out of the fever – also my best Respects to all inquiring friends – I may state to you that we have not drawn any land yet, but soon will. We have togo to Milsburg, that is about 12 miles from the place, 21 miles from Monrovia it is a place that I don’t want to go, too. I would rather than in Caldwell. But it is the orders of the Governor Mr. Mecklin.
Yours with Respects,
Mars Lucas
N.B please to answer this by the first opportunity that affords –
(To) Townsend Heaton, Esq. Leesburg L. Cty. Virga."
Mars Lucas. Letter to Townsend Heaton. Caldwell, June 1830. Loudoun County Museum collection.
Right: Interactive map of Millsburg, Liberia, a location mentioned in the above letter.
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Caldwell, February 2, 1831
The next letter was written by Jesse to Albert in February of 1831.
"Sir I write you these few lines to inform you of my and my familys health I am well at present and hope these few lines may find you the same. Since you received my last letter, I have lost two of my children give my respects to Mr. John Braden and family."
Jesse Lucas. Letter to Albert Heaton. Caldwell, February 2, 1831. Loudoun Museum collection.
In December, Jesse wrote a short letter to Albert:
"Sir I Received your kind letter which informed me of your helth and family and friends which gave me much pleasure and with all to have an oppertunity of answering it my Brother and myself are well and all of the familey that are living tho many of them are dead. Since I Rote last I have lost 2 of my Children Susan Died soon after her mother and Henry Died on the 5 of this month. Elizabeth is at Chool and Jonathan is rather too small we have Drawn our land and are liveing on it and we are little better satisfied than what we was-"
Jesse noted that everything was expensive in Liberia. He asked that Mahlon Taylor, a Quaker,1 send news of his brothers and their families.
Jesse Lucas. Letter to Albert Heaton. Caldwell, December 1831. Loudoun County Museum collection.
In April of 1836, Jesse wrote home to friends and family. He and Mars had been abducted while working in Bassa (somewhere near Buchanan, on the map to the right), but they were either rescued or escaped. Jesse shares that he had re-married an American woman and had a son named Alexander. He wrote that flour cost $12 per barrel (over $300 in 2015 dollars), and that he'd not had any in four years, and that "domestick" cloth was 200% more costly per yard than in America. Mars had not married. He asked that "his mistress" (Mrs. Lydia Heaton) send a barrel of flour and that he would in return send her a barrel of good rice.
He then wrote:
"We both thought we were slaves when we were in that country but we never knew what slavery was until we came to this country and that is the cry of every living man in the colony."
He closed with the following:
"I must close my letter & my wishes & desires one for you all, to remember me to all my acquaintances & believe me to be your sincere friend.
Jessie Lucas & Mars Lucas"
Jesse Lucas. Copy of a letter written to friends and family. Caldwell, April 1836. Loudoun Museum collection.
The April 1836 letter is the last in the Museum's collection. Mars died in 1839 of anasarca, and Jesse died of the same in 1842. 1 Albert died in 1831; 2 Townsend died sometime after 1841. 3 The Heatons mentioned in this story were all buried in the Ketoctin Cemetery. It's unknown where Jesse and Mars are buried.
Of the 58 people who sailed on the brig Liberia in 1830, 26 had died before the year ended. 4 By the 1843 census in Liberia, only four of the original thirty Loudoun emigrants remained in Liberia.5
The American Colonization Society sent the last settlers to Liberia in 1904, and officially dissolved in 1964. Approximately 12,000 emigrated to Liberia through the group. 6
Right: Interactive map of Ketoctin Cemetery, Spring 2016. Loudoun County Office of Mapping and Geographic Information.
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In Closing
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The Lucas-Heaton Letters
In December of 1829, nine members of the Lucas family of Loudoun County left Northern Virginia for Hampton Roads, where they boarded a brig bound for the western coast of Africa. Two of the men, Mars and Jesse Lucas, had recently been emancipated by Albert and Townsend Heaton of Loudoun County. The two sets of brothers began a years-long correspondence about family back home in Loudoun and the challenges of life in Liberia. Seven of those letters are in the Loudoun Museum in Leesburg, Virginia.
What follows are excerpts (and links to copies of) the letters, the locations mentioned within them, and a little about the events that led the Lucas family and other emancipated people to move across the Atlantic for a new life.
PLEASE NOTE: To read this Story Map, use the dots or arrows on the left side of your screen. For pages with more content than may be viewable on your display, either use the mouse scroll wheel or click anywhere on the left side of the page and use the down arrow.
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Loudoun County, Virginia
Loudoun County was carved out of Fairfax County in 1757 during the French and Indian War, and named for General John Campbell, the 4th Earl of Loudoun and Commander-in-Chief of British and Colonial forces. 1
The geography of Loudoun influenced settlement. The lower eastern half was primarily granted to large plantation owners from Tidewater Virginia, while the rolling valleys west and north of the Bull Run-Catoctin Mountain ranges were mostly settled by Scots-Irish, Germans, and Quakers. This diversity impacted both the development of the county as well as opinions of slavery; while many planters depended upon it, most Quakers were adamantly opposed. 2
PLEASE NOTE: The map to the right is an interactive map of the original Loudoun County land grants from the 1700s and 1800s. Zoom, pan, and click for more information.
Additional interactive maps are available throughout this Story Map.
2 Charles P. Poland, Jr, From Frontier to Suburbia: Loudoun County, Virginia, One of America's Fastest Growing Counties. Heritage Books, Inc., 2005, pp. 6-7.
Manumission is the act of a slaveowner freeing a slave.
Virginia enacted several laws regarding manumission during the 18th and 19th centuries. While a 1782 act allowed for manumission, a 1793 act required that all free black people register with the Commonwealth as well as prevented them from moving to Virginia. In 1806, legislation was passed to require everyone who had been freed through manumission to leave the Commonwealth within a year or risk re-enslavement. 1
In 1816, the American Colonization Society was founded in Washington, D.C. at Brown's Hotel; a year later, an auxiliary was formed in Loudoun County. In 1824, the Loudoun Manumission and Emigration Society was organized by Quakers at the Oakdale Schoolhouse in Goose Creek (now called Lincoln) 3 . While members had different opinions and motivations, the two groups shared the common goal of offering a means by which formerly enslaved people could emigrate from Virginia.4
2 Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, American Colonization Society. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Accessed January 2016.
3 Asa Moore Janney and Werner Janney, Ye Meetg Hous Smal: A Short Account of FRIENDS in Loudoun County, Virginia: 1732-1980. Friends of Thomas Balch Library, 1980.
NOTE: Marie Tyler-McGraw's article, above, has a more comprehensive review and history of the Lucas-Heaton letters than what has been offered here. Additional research from McGraw, in partnership with Deborah Lee, can be found at Virginia Emigrants to Liberia, a website hosted by the Virginia Center for Digital History.
Right: Yardley Taylor, Loudoun County map 1853, Interactive map (fit to a modern base). Loudoun County Office of Mapping and Geographic Information, Accessed January 2016. Centered approximately on the location of the community of Goose Creek. Yardley Taylor was the first president of the Loudoun Emigration and Manumission Society.
"Brown's Hotel" (later called the David Hotel), from the Samuel August Mitchell "Plan of the City of Washington", 1886. Map from the David Rumsey Map Collection.
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Dr. James Heaton
James Heaton was a doctor in Loudoun County, who migrated from Pennsylvania as a young man. He married Lydia Osburn, the daughter of a prominent citizen and physician from western Loudoun County. 1 They lived in what is today Purcellville:
"The intersection of Main and Ninth streets was known as Heaton's Cross Roads. Near the northwest corner stood Exedra, the grandest of area houses, built for James Heaton about 1804. It became the home of three generations of Heaton doctors.
Exedra is classical Greek for "the sitting place". " 2
When Dr. Heaton died in 1824, he willed fourteen enslaved men, women, and children to family members, including his wife, Lydia, and his sons Townsend and Albert. Among those enslaved were brothers Jesse and Mars Lucas. 3
1 National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Woodgrove. Includes a history of the Osburn-Heaton families. Accessed January 2016. Link to PDF.
3 List of enslaved peoplefrom the estate inventory of Dr. James Heaton Loudoun County Will Book P, p. 63, 1824. Note that a Ned and a Solomon are listed; Mars and Lucas mention brothers by those names in their letters.
Right: Interactive map with imagery 1937 USDA Farm Survey. Loudoun County Office of Mapping and Geographic Information. Click the stars for location names.
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From Loudoun County to Monrovia
In 1829, the Loudoun Manumission and Emigration Society sent a group of emigrants to Hampton Roads. Among the number were several members of the Lucas family: 1
"Shortly after Christmas 1829 Mars and Jesse Lucas, Jesse’s wife, Amelia, their four small children, and two other women, Hannah and Mary Lucas, began a journey from Northern Virginia to Hampton Roads. There they boarded the brig Liberia and, with forty-nine other free blacks and manumitted slaves, prepared to sail to the colony of Liberia on the western coast of Africa." 2
1 It's not specifically known when the Lucas brothers obtained their freedom, although when Albert wrote his will in 1826, he specified that "after the decease of my mother Jesse my slave shall have his freedom". It was clearly after that date that he decided to allow Jesse to emigrate.Albert Heaton's Will. Loudoun County, Virginia, Will Book T, p. 45, 1826.
The first letter to reach Loudoun County was written by Jesse Lucas to Albert Heaton, dated March 10, 1830:
"I take the opportunity of writing you these few lines to inform you that myself and my family are in very good helth and I hope these few lines may find you the same."
Jesse was "sea-sick from the gulf to the Land"and "never saw as many dreadful sites" on the journey, including "a whale far off and two or three sharks".
The Lucases had settled in Caldwell on the St. Paul River, where Jesse reported that he had never seen so many fish, and described the many fruits available to them, including cassavas, which “may be baked or boiled or roasted, they will make a very good custard”. He asked that if they could please send a bushel of dried apples and a barrel each of tobacco and flour, he could give in return double the worth of each in camwood, ivory, and oranges. He also offered to send a pet monkey, should the Heatons wish.
This letter was the only time that Jesse addressed the letter with “Master”.
Jesse Lucas.original and copy of letter to Albert or Townsend Heaton.Caldwell, March 10th, 1830. Loudoun Museum collection.It's unknown when the copies were created, although a date on Mars' March 12th, 1830 letter suggests they may have been copied in 1929.
Note: It's not known where or how Jesse and Mars were educated, although a guess might be in the Heaton home. The Revised Code of Virginia 1819 made it illegal for enslaved people or free black people to gather in a meetinghouse or houses at night for any purpose or in schools by day or night in order to learn to read and write. 1 It remained legal to teach reading or writing in private homes, however, and many slaveholders who supported colonization taught their enslaved people to read and write to prepare them for freedom. 2
2 Deborah Lee, personal correspondence. March 2016.
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Caldwell, March 10th, 1830, continued
In the first letter that Jesse wrote to Albert, he included one addressed to his parents.
"Dear father and mother -
I take this opportunity of writing this few lines to inform that me and my family are in very good health and I hope this may be find you the same.”
He sent “love to all my brothers and sisters.” He asked of one brother – “Solomon you must buy me one or two dollars of the cheapest beads and send them by the first vessel and I will send you something much purtier than you ever saw.” He told his brothers of the many pretty girls in Caldwell, and finished with this:
"Mother Lukus your daughter-in-law remembers her love to you and all the family. Elizabeth remembers all her love to all her uncles and her cousins."
Jesse Lucas. original and copy of letter to his father and mother, enclosed with the letter on the previous page to the Heatons. Caldwell, March 10th, 1830. Loudoun Museum collection.
Caldwell is about 8 miles northeast of Monrovia, the capital city and an arrival point for emigrants who traveled to Liberia.
Right: interactive map of Caldwell and environs.
St. Pauls River, Liberia. Surveyed by Captain Kelly, 1867. Library of Congress. Link.
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Caldwell, March 12th, 1830
On March 12, 1830, Mars sent a letter to Townsend.
Mars also reported that he had been sea sick on the voyage over, that the passage had taken 43 days, and that “58 Emigrants arrived here in perfect good health and Spirits, we are still in a good state of good health so far". He found the locals “not very much given to industry”, but the place they were staying very pleasant, with good water. As had Jesse, he described the fruits and vegetables, and promised with his next letter “to give you a more exact account. my time in this country is been short."
He briefly described the town, and closed with the following:
"I wish you to give my best Respects to all your family and tell them I am well and doing well, likewise please to Remember me to all my Relations, please to answer this as soon as possible and send news of the Country. I have no more at present.
Yours very Respectfully,
Mars Lucas"
Mars Lucas. Letter to Townsend Heaton. Caldwell, March 12, 1830. Loudoun County Museum collection.
The next letter was written by Albert Heaton, and was likely misdated - while the letter has a date of April 29th, the envelope indicates it was sent on the brig Montgomery, which sailed on April 8th for Liberia.
Albert wrote:
"I embrace the earliest opportunity with which I am favoured to let you hear from your native home, and from your relations and friends, being far away in a distant country - separated by a vast ocean from them all and now amoung strangers, I know full well that you will rejoice and be happy to get any tidings from Old Loudoun County, in which you were born and in which you lived until that trying time when you took your leave for Liberia to enjoy that freedom which you could not enjoy here."
He offered this advice:
"- it is a source of great happiness to look back to former days which bring the recollection of fond parents, relatives, and friends, the good feelings you have had together, the concern you have each had for the happiness of the other, But to let the thoughts of them destroy your peace of mind is cruel to you & your relations, who only wish to hear of your happiness to make them so likewise. Think of yourselves and your family, and do every thing you can to make yourselves comfortable, prosperous and happy and in a few short years you may be able to recross the sea and come and visit them all and give vent to your feelings of joy on again seeing them - you have both gained a good name in this Country all voices unite in sounding your praise here and I have no doubt that you will soon let your fellow Liberians know that you deserve one where you are."
Albert Heaton. Letter to Jesse and Mars Lucas. Loudoun County, March or April 1830. Loudoun Museum collection.
In the June letter, Mars spoke of the hardships they encountered since being in Liberia, including illness and the death of Jesse's wife:
"I again take up my pen, to my satisfaction In communicating to you a few lines, letting you know, that I am still in the land of the living and enjoying reasonable health. I am glad to send that I have almost got clear of the fever, I had a very severe attakt of it. I am able to work a little now but very often has to stop, on account of the my headacks. Jesse and myself, to be house keepers, since the decease of his wife, his family is on a bettering state except his young child who remains very weak, it is almost gone to nothing. We do all our own Washing. Dureing our illness we had to hire a woman to wash and cooke but we saw that it would not suit us, So, we have not. hired any one since. I may state to you that I am much deceiv'd with this Country the reports is all a lie, mearly to encourage people to come to this Country. Time is very hard out here, any thing is very Dear and not to be had. They scarcely will allow us as much provision is a half grown child can eat, a man can eat up all his meat, all in one day. We only draw 1 lb of meat per week. 3 quarts meal 2 quarts of rice, that is weeks allowance."
He closed the letter with:
"Jesse and Mars,
sends their warmest Love to their old Mrs. and family. If you please to let My Father and Mother and brothers and sisters know that I am allmost out of the fever – also my best Respects to all inquiring friends – I may state to you that we have not drawn any land yet, but soon will. We have togo to Milsburg, that is about 12 miles from the place, 21 miles from Monrovia it is a place that I don’t want to go, too. I would rather than in Caldwell. But it is the orders of the Governor Mr. Mecklin.
Yours with Respects,
Mars Lucas
N.B please to answer this by the first opportunity that affords –
(To) Townsend Heaton, Esq. Leesburg L. Cty. Virga."
Mars Lucas. Letter to Townsend Heaton. Caldwell, June 1830. Loudoun County Museum collection.
Right: Interactive map of Millsburg, Liberia, a location mentioned in the above letter.
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Caldwell, February 2, 1831
The next letter was written by Jesse to Albert in February of 1831.
"Sir I write you these few lines to inform you of my and my familys health I am well at present and hope these few lines may find you the same. Since you received my last letter, I have lost two of my children give my respects to Mr. John Braden and family."
Jesse Lucas. Letter to Albert Heaton. Caldwell, February 2, 1831. Loudoun Museum collection.
In December, Jesse wrote a short letter to Albert:
"Sir I Received your kind letter which informed me of your helth and family and friends which gave me much pleasure and with all to have an oppertunity of answering it my Brother and myself are well and all of the familey that are living tho many of them are dead. Since I Rote last I have lost 2 of my Children Susan Died soon after her mother and Henry Died on the 5 of this month. Elizabeth is at Chool and Jonathan is rather too small we have Drawn our land and are liveing on it and we are little better satisfied than what we was-"
Jesse noted that everything was expensive in Liberia. He asked that Mahlon Taylor, a Quaker,1 send news of his brothers and their families.
Jesse Lucas. Letter to Albert Heaton. Caldwell, December 1831. Loudoun County Museum collection.
In April of 1836, Jesse wrote home to friends and family. He and Mars had been abducted while working in Bassa (somewhere near Buchanan, on the map to the right), but they were either rescued or escaped. Jesse shares that he had re-married an American woman and had a son named Alexander. He wrote that flour cost $12 per barrel (over $300 in 2015 dollars), and that he'd not had any in four years, and that "domestick" cloth was 200% more costly per yard than in America. Mars had not married. He asked that "his mistress" (Mrs. Lydia Heaton) send a barrel of flour and that he would in return send her a barrel of good rice.
He then wrote:
"We both thought we were slaves when we were in that country but we never knew what slavery was until we came to this country and that is the cry of every living man in the colony."
He closed with the following:
"I must close my letter & my wishes & desires one for you all, to remember me to all my acquaintances & believe me to be your sincere friend.
Jessie Lucas & Mars Lucas"
Jesse Lucas. Copy of a letter written to friends and family. Caldwell, April 1836. Loudoun Museum collection.
The April 1836 letter is the last in the Museum's collection. Mars died in 1839 of anasarca, and Jesse died of the same in 1842. 1 Albert died in 1831; 2 Townsend died sometime after 1841. 3 The Heatons mentioned in this story were all buried in the Ketoctin Cemetery. It's unknown where Jesse and Mars are buried.
Of the 58 people who sailed on the brig Liberia in 1830, 26 had died before the year ended. 4 By the 1843 census in Liberia, only four of the original thirty Loudoun emigrants remained in Liberia.5
The American Colonization Society sent the last settlers to Liberia in 1904, and officially dissolved in 1964. Approximately 12,000 emigrated to Liberia through the group. 6
