Ashmun, Jehudi

Ashmun, Jehudi agent of the American Colonization Society, was born at Champlain, N.Y., in April, 1794. He was educated at Burlington, where he graduated in 1816. Some time after he was made a professor in the " Maine Charity School," where his stay was brief. He afterward removed to the District of Columbia, where he joined the Protestant Episcopal Church, and edited the "Theological Repertory." Being appointed to take charge of a re- enforcement to the colony at Liberia, he embarked for Africa June 19, 1822, and arrived at Cape Monserado August 8. About three months after his arrival, while his whole force was 35 men and boys, he was attacked by 800 armed savages, but by his energy and desperate valor the assailants were repulsed, and again, in a few days, when they returned with redoubled numbers, were utterly defeated. When ill-health compelled him in 1828 to take a voyage to America, he left behind him in Africa a community of 1200 freemen. He died at New Haven August 25, 1828. He was a person of great energy of character, and most devoted piety, and his services to the infant colony were invaluable.-Gurley, Life of Ashmun (Washington, 1835); Quarterly Christian Spectator, 7:330; North Amer. Review, xli, 565.