Scipio Vaughan (1784–1840) was an African-American artisan and slave who inspired a "back to Africa" movement among some of his offspring to connect with their roots in Africa, specifically the Yoruba of West Africa in the early 19th century. After gaining his freedom, he spent the latter part of his life in the United States and started the movement with his immediate family members in his final moments. Several generations of Scipio's descendants are dispersed across three continents where they mostly live or lived, except for occasional cousin reunions, which includes people from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana and Tanzania in Africa; Jamaica and Barbados in the Caribbean; the United States and Canada in North America; and the United Kingdom in Europe.
Early life and career
Scipio was born as an Omoba in 1784 in the Owu kingdom of Abeokuta in Yorubaland. He was captured by European trans-Atlantic slave traders in 1805 and taken together with other captured slaves to the Velekete Slave Market in Badagry, one of Nigeria's slave portal, from where he was shipped in a slave ship to America and taken upcountry to Camden, about 30 miles northeast of Columbia, South Carolina to Charleston, South Carolina, United States. There he was sold as a slave to a white master, Wiley Vaughan and brought to live in Camden. As per the prevailing tradition, he took the surname of his master in addition to his given name; Scipio, as Scipio Vaughan. Scipio was so skilled as an ironmonger that he established a reputation in the area as a talented artisan for his work in fashioning iron gates and fences. As a result of his exceptional gifts, his master Wiley Vaughan valued him so much that he granted him his freedom, his tools, and one hundred dollars as stated in his will after his death. In 1827, Scipio Vaughan became a free man and remained one for the rest of his life.
Marriage and children
In 1815, Scipio married Maria Theresa Louisa Matilda Conway. Of Native American descent, she was the second daughter of Bonds Conway. Bonds Conway was born in Virginia, had come to Camden from Virginia as the body servant of his Master Peter Conway. He was also the first free black of Camden and a successful small businessman and land-owner. Scipio Vaughan and Maria Theresa Louisa Matilda Conway bore and raised 9 children; 7 daughters and 2 sons. All were born in South Carolina, namely: Burrell Churchill Vaughan in 1816; Elizabeth Margaret Hall in 1818; Kitty Ann Hammond in 1820; Nancy Carter Vaughan in 1822; Sarah Ann Vaughan in 1825; James Churchill Vaughan in 1828; Harriet Amanda in 1829; Maria Virginia Vaughan in 1832 and Mary Elizabeth Vaughan Mac Laughlin in 1838. By the early 1800s, Conway had become a successful landowner in Camden. One of his properties included a "small Charleston type house," which has been restored to its former state.
"Back-to-Africa" Movement, descendancy and legacy
On his deathbed in 1840, Scipio told his sons to return to his native Yorubaland in Africa. It is most likely that Scipio was determined to reverse the effects of the transAtlantic slave trade, through some members of his immediate family by rebuilding their roots in Africa in order to restore some of their lost dignity, pride, wealth, power and security. To grant their father's last request, James Churchill Vaughan, 24 years old at the time, and his elder brother Burrell Vaughan, enrolled with the American Colonization Society as emigrants to Liberia. They left Camden in 1852 in an attempt to also escape the oppressive laws against coloured men and sailed to Liberia in 1853. There, they started a new life and James Churchill Vaughan soon became prominent.
However, after arriving in Liberia, they did not settle for long. They lived there for two years before accepting an offer of employment to go with Thomas Jefferson Bowen, a Missionary with the Southern Baptist Convention and his wife to Yorubaland in 1855 to spread the Baptist religion. They came to Nigeria in 1854 and arrived in Ijaye to work as builders in 1855. During the brutal Ibadan-Ijaye War, James was taken captive. He escaped, took refuge in Abeokuta and served as a military sharpshooter. After missionaries were driven out of Abeokuta in 1867, he and other Christian refugees resettled in Lagos, where he built a successful hardware business and raised his family. He became part of the Lagos elite, and was a wealthy and prosperous merchant. He also led a revolt against white missionaries, in the 1880s, helping to establish the Ebenezer Baptist Church, the first indigenous and independent church in West Africa in 1888, located at 50a, Campbell Street, Lagos Island.