Edward James Roye, a native of Newark, Ohio, was the son of a runaway slave from Kentucky. He lived in Chillicothe when the antislavery movement divided into two factions - the gradualists who supported colonization and the immediatists who called for an immediate end to slavery, without compensation to the owners, and without the removal of the freed black population. Roye studied for three years at Ohio University, after which, in 1836, he taught a school for black children in Chillicothe. Ten years later, Roye immigrated to Liberia, launched a political career, and was elected the nation's fifth president.