The Refugee Home Society was an organization founded in Michigan and Ontario in 1851 that was designed to help former enslaved people become established in a community and remain free.
[1] The Refugee Home Society Settlement was a proposal by Henry Bibb, founder of the Voice of the Fugitive newspaper.
[2] Settlers included John and Jane Walls, who were a former enslaved man and the wife of his deceased slaveholder, who left Rockingham County, North Carolina with her children to be able to live as a married couple.
Its failure was likely due to its narrow and paternalistic land policies that unfortunately excluded a great deal of potentially capable settlers.
This was combined with the failure to obtain any significant leadership among the settlers which resulted in corruption and discredited its reputation, but not before aiding thousands of other refugees.