Liberia, 1840-1866 Benjamin Coates Correspondence, fascinating group of 15 letters from or concerning Liberia and the colonization movement; five 1850-66 letters from Monrovia (two folded letters posted in the U.S.) including 1850 folded letter from J.N. Lewis concerning general business affairs, 1857 folded letter sent through England from E.W. Blyden requesting paper to print his pamphlet "An Apology for the African Race", lengthy 1849 8-page letter from President J.J. Roberts regarding trip to Europe and visiting various governments seeking recognition for Liberia, upon return he was successful in removing slave traders from several towns, mentions Henry Clay return to U.S. Senate, 1850 3-page letter from Presdent J.J. Roberts curious about Clay's compromise bill and the result of California's application for statehood, comments on U.S. slavery issue with note written by Coate in margin to bring this to the attention of Mrs. (Harriet Beecher) Stowe, and a 1866 4-page letter from former President Roberts commenting on American newspaper accounts of Civil War Reconstruction, negro sufferage, etc., 10 other 1840-50 folded letters posted in the U.S. regarding Liberian matters including many letter from members of government concerning the slave trade, booking return trip to Liberia, etc., from persons including W. McLain, G. Wilkeson, Rev. R.R. Gurley, Rev I.W. Roberts, etc., F.-V.F. overall, a marvelous historical group for the Liberian specialist. Estimate  $3,000 - 4,000. Benjamin Coates (1808-1887) was among a certain group of Philadelphia Quakers to become deeply involved in philanthropy, particularly those efforts dealing with abolition and education. He was a member of several organizations, including the Friends Freedmen, the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, the Union Benevolent Association, the Institute for Colored Youth and others. The philosophical inclinations of Benjamin Coates were shaped in part by the abolitionist networks of his day. Coates was convinced that a new colony in West Africa, populated by black Americans, was the best strategy for ending slavery and giving African Americans a positive fresh start. In this regard, Coates was involved with the American Colonization Society, an organization which established the colony of Liberia to resettle free black Americans in West Africa Coates forged an alliance with African American Joseph Jenkins Roberts, who emigrated to Liberia in 1829, and became a symbol of the personal, financial, and economic opportunities that could be had in Africa.Coates propounded the abolition of slavery as the catalyst for worldwide change, viewing slavery as a problem that plagued his religious community, his business relationships, his country's political system, the world economy and his Quaker conscience. Benjamin Coates was the author of "Cotton Cultivation in Africa, Suggestions on the Importance of the Cultivation of Cotton in Africa, in Reference to the Abolition of Slavery in the United States…" in 1858. $0 (Image)