This idea of recolonizing black men into Africa is not a new one; as far back as 1773, at which time slavery was common in New England, Dr. Samuel Hopkins became convinced of its wickedness and, with Dr. Stiles (afterwards president of Yale College) made an appeal to the public in behalf of some colored men whom he was preparing to send to Africa as missionaries. The Revolutionary War interfered with his plan. In 1783 Dr. Thornton, of Washington, proposed a colonization scheme and organized about forty New England colored men to go to Africa; his scheme failed for lack of funds. The British Sierra Leone Company in 1786 organized its colony at Sierra Leone for freed blacks. When Thomas Jefferson was President, he made application to the Sierra Leone Company to receive American negroes, but his request failed of effect. From 1800 to 1805 the project of colonization was again discussed. Very interesting was the work of Paul Cuffy, born in New Bedford, Mass., of negro and Indian parents; he was a man of ability, gained considerable wealth, and owned a vessel; he induced about forty persons to embark with him for Sierra Leone in 1815; they were well received and settled permanently in that colony. Paul Cuffy had larger schemes of colonization and planned to transport a considerable number of American negroes to Africa, but died before his plans were realized. In 1818 the Society sent Samuel J. Mills and Ebenezer Burgess to seek a suitable location for the colony. Samuel J. Mills was the young man to whom the work of foreign missions of the United States was largely due; after he graduated from college, he planned to establish a colony in the West; he became interested in a seminary for the education of colored men, who should go to Africa as missionaries, at Parsippany, N. J. Mills and Burgess went by way of England, where they called upon various persons of prominence in the hope of receiving information and advice which might be of use to them. They sailed from the Downs, England, in February, 1818, and were in Sierra Leone before the end of March; they examined the conditions there with interest and then, in company with John Kizell and a Mr. Martin, went farther down the coast; they reached Sherbro Island on the first of April and decided to found the settlement there.