In 1833, Mary Wickliffe emancipated Alfred (her grandson by blood) and his mother Milly; she also freed his cousin Lucretia (Lucy) Russell and her four children: Sinthia, Gilbert, George, and Henry, all of whom were of majority-white ancestry. They emigrated that year with nearly 200 other colonists to Liberia on the brig "Ajax" under auspices of the American Colonization Society; Alfred was fifteen years old when they arrived with other pioneers in Liberia on July 11, 1833. Some 146 pioneers survived the voyage; about 30 children had died during the voyage.