Having acquired $15,000 to $20,000 from trading in his native North Carolina, Sheridan arrived in Liberia with twenty-five thousand board feet of lumber and thirty-five tons of merchandise to sell.
When the government refused him the acreage he desired, Sheridan acquired 570 acres in the interior of Bassa, and, after clearing some of it, convinced some fellow repatriates to join him. By 1843, Bexley had 135 residents with 1,082 acres planted. Sheridan alone had 45 acres under cultivation with 6,000 coffee trees, yams, potatoes and cassava.
Footnote: Berlin, 1974, p. 169; Cassell, 1970, p. 112; Gatewood, 1983; Shick, 1971a, p. 86.
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