An American Liberia

THE PLAN of American Colonization Society to establish an African colony where emancipated American slaves could be sent is common knowledge. Northerners and Southerners alike co-operated in 1820's and 1830's to establish colony which was later to become Liberia. Not so well known was scheme of one enterprising Southerner to establish Negro colony in North-in Oregon Territory. This was proposal of Peter Stuart Ney (probably Neyman), North Carolina school teacher who would probably be forgotten today but for his twenty-seven-year impersonation of Michel Ney, great French revolutionary general. When Peter Stuart Ney appeared in North Carolina in 1819, France was still rife with rumors that Ney's execution in 1815 had been faked and that the Bravest of Brave had been whisked to safety in exile. It was tale that any operaloving people would adore. Naturally, North Carolinian curiosities were piqued by mysterious appearance of man named Ney at such time. They questioned new arrival until he confessed that I am Ney; he made same statement on his deathbed in 1846. Judge Archibald D. Murphy, who had brought him to North Carolina as his amanuensis, persisted in describing Ney as a well-educated, intelligent Scotchman.' But many North Carolinians insisted that he was too good horseman, marksman, artist, and versifier to be mere Scottish teacher. To end of his days as teacher in Iredell County he continued to be called Marshal Ney. And after he died, journalists, historians, handwriting analysts, and even French government were called upon in vain efforts to prove his claims. Thus it was no mere nobody who sought James Madison's support in

History · Race, History, and American Society