[2] From the 1770s onward, individuals in France, Britain, and North America developed plans to colonize freed black people as a way of encouraging emancipation.

These individuals proposed to form colonies in Africa, in the Caribbean, or in the American West; notable proponents include Granville Sharp of England, LaFayette of France, and Thomas Jefferson of America.

[5] Fairfax offered his own "practicable scheme" for ending slavery through colonization when he developed his "Plan for Liberating the Negroes within the United States" in 1790.

[1] His estate, Shannon Hill in present-day Jefferson County, West Virginia, was sold by his daughter in 1825 and the original home was demolished.

The couple had the following children:[1] The Union officer in the United States Navy during the American Civil War, Donald McNeill Fairfax (1818–1894), was his grandson.