Disosway, Gabriel P. (1799 – 1868)

Gabriel P. Disosway, a white Methodist preacher from Staten Island, was treasurer of the American Colonization Society. While Disosway was a member of the American Colonization Society, he was not an anti-slavery activist, see the quote below from a speech he delivered in 1831.

Disosway was a merchant and philanthropist. He graduated from Columbia in 1819, went to Petersburg, Va., where he resided for several years, then returned to New York and became a merchant. He was one of the founders of Randolph-Macon college, established at Ashland, Va., in 1832. He contributed frequently to the newspaper and periodical press, and published “The Earliest Churches of New York and its Vicinity” (New York, 1865).

Read about the American Colonization Society and Gabriel P. Disosway at: https://tinyurl.com/y2ytej2l, and https://tinyurl.com/yyeb9pz3, and https://tinyurl.com/y8c756h9.

Read the story below of a group of enslaved African Americans from Kentucky and Tennessee to be taken to Liberia. During their journey many tried to run, and as a consequence when they reached New York they were kept in the Stapleton Jail on Staten Island before sailing for Liberia. The article explains that Disosway received these enslaved African Americans under the condition that they could only be freed if they left the United States and resettled in Liberia.