Samuel Bacon

Samuel Bacon (July 22, 1781 – May 2, 1820) was an American lawyer, journalist, Marine Corps officer and religious minister. He served as US government agent for the first American Colonization Society expedition to Africa. The expedition was struck down by African fever and Bacon sought help from a nearby British settlement. He died from exhaustion and placed the expedition's supplies into the charge of Daniel Coker.

Early life Samuel Bacon was born on July 22, 1781, in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, to Ephraim Bacon and Hannah Chamberlin. He was the youngest of nine siblings and attended school at Leicester, Massachusetts.

Bacon was admitted to the bar in Washington, D.C., on 9 January 1815 and his son was born in March that year. The US government selected Bacon on the advice of the ACS, who planned to establish a colony on the West coast of Africa. The US Navy sixth-rate Cyane was supposed to escort the Elizabeth but was detained by ice for a further 4 days and did not catch up with the expedition until they reached Africa.

The expedition landed at Sherbro Island, Sierra Leone in March 1820 and established a temporary camp there ahead of procuring a permanent site on the mainland. Bacon asked the officers of the Cyane to assist with selecting land for the colony and its first lieutenant, Matthew C. Perry, selected a site at Cape Mersurado. However by the time the Cyane returned to Sherbro at the end of April the majority of colonists had died of African fever. The blame for this was laid on the site chosen for the temporary camp which was on marshy ground, surrounded by dense vegetation and whose only water source was brackish.

Bacon became ill too on April 19 and was too sick to make journal entries from the 23rd. On the 28th, a schooner from the Sierra Leone colony visited and two British officials inspected the debilitated settlement. They were asked for aid but refused and would not take Bacon on to their ship. He pursued them in an open boat but the oarsmen could not catch up. They continued on to the Plantain Islands and then spent another day on the water before landing at Cape Shilling where the superintendent of the British station, Captain William Randle, gave him shelter and aid. The fever and exposure to the sun was too severe though and he expired early on the morning of May 2. He was buried at Cape Shilling's church on the same day.

Following the failure of the expedition a second venture was approved by President James Monroe in 1821, for which Bacon's brother Ephraim served as a government agent.