1840
Made a trip to western Virginia to survey lands for Oberlin College.
1846
Removed to Springfield, Massachusetts, as selling agent of the Western wool-growers.
1847
Unfolded to Frederick Douglass a plan for a negro insurrection in the Virginia mountains.
1849
Went to England to sell wool, and visited the Continent.
Became associated with Gerrit Smith's plan to colonize negroes on Adirondack lands, and removed his family to a farm at North Elba, on these lands.
1850
Thanksgiving Day. Addressed a meeting of negroes at Springfield, and wrote to his wife concerning it, suggesting a militant intention regarding slavery.
