Background
Lott Cary was born into slavery in Charles City County, Virginia, United States in 1780.
Lott Cary was born into slavery in Charles City County, Virginia, United States in 1780.
Cary learned to read the Bible and later attended a small school for slaves. Its twenty young men were taught by Deacon William Crane.
In 1804 he went to Richmond, secured work in a tobacco warehouse, and for some years led a riotous life. In 1807 he was greatly impressed by a sermon based on the third chapter of John, and from this time forth his life showed the effect of a genuine conversion. Meanwhile his efforts to fit himself for service gave evidence of remarkable force of personality, and he was helped by his massive and erect figure. He was given unusual authority in his work, and from time to time received special remuneration. About 1813, his first wife having died, he purchased his freedom and that of his two children for $850; and he received license to preach from the First Baptist Church of Richmond, which in 1815 had 1, 200 negro members in its congregation. Inspired by the sermons of Luther Rice, Cary in 1815 helped to organize the Richmond African Baptist Missionary Society, which after five years had $700 in the treasury. He himself determined to go to Africa; and on May 1, 1819, he was received for service by the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions. Before leaving, with Collin Teague and a few other associates he organized what was to be the first Baptist church in Liberia, himself being pastor. On January 23, 1821, in the brig Nautilus, he sailed from Norfolk in company with twenty - eight colonists and their children, the expedition being in charge of two representatives of the American Colonization Society. With this organization circumstances forced Cary to cooperate; but he never fully subscribed to its policies. Having arrived at Freetown after a voyage of forty - four days, no other provision having been made for them, the colonists were accepted by the government agent as laborers and mechanics. In December the arrival of new agents of the Colonization Society led to further negotiation for land and to the real founding of Liberia; and early in 1822 Cary and others went to Cape Montserado. Between the ravages of the fever and the hostility of the natives the outlook was far from promising; but Cary was with those colonists who determined to stay. He extended his labors, and after three years he had more than sixty members in his church. In the closing months of 1823 he was prominent in opposing the authority of Jehudi Ashmun, who had brought out a company of colonists and had taken charge of the colony; but the high character of Ashmun eventually won his cooperation. In 1826 he was vice-agent of the colony. On November 8, 1828, while he was assisting in the defense of the colony against the Deys, the overturning of a candle led to a powder explosion, and he was fatally injured along with several other persons. He died two days later.
Quotations: "When asked why he would leave a community in which he was respected and led a comfortable life, he replied: 'I am an African, and in this country, however meritorious my conduct, and 'respectable' my character, I cannot receive the credit due to either. I wish to go to a country where I shall be estimated by my merits, not by my complexion; and I feel bound to labor for my suffering race. "
He married, but the name of his wife, who died about 1813, is not known.
He executed a marriage bond in Richmond on January 6, 1819, and on that date or soon afterward married Nancy Cary, another free African American whose possible kinship to her husband is unknown. They had one child.
Cary married a daughter of Richmond Sampson, a Petersburg resident who had emigrated on the Nautilus, but she died on an unrecorded date before October 15, 1825. By September 19, 1827, Cary had married a fourth time, to a daughter of J. Benson, of Monrovia. No children are recorded from his third or fourth marriages.