A Ghanaian merchant, Chief Alfred Charles Sam was born in 1880, in Appasu, West Akim District of the then Gold Coast (Ghana). He attended a missionary school in Kyebi, Eastern Ghana.
Alfred Sam traded rubber, cocoa, coffee, mahogany and other good. He exported most of his goods in America and Europe and was the owner of Akim Trading Company.

Chief Sam in 1913 correlated with Nigerian Herbert Macaulay who was famously known as the Nigerian Father of Nationalism. He travelled to America, where he started organizing meetings, he convinced the Black prospects to buy a stock worth $25 from his Company. He compelled them to sell their possessions before sailing to Africa.

His proposals were seen as a ploy to milk money, so he was labelled a fraudster by the government of the United States, Black business people and Black American newspapers criticized the idea. Alfred Sam was investigated, but no criminal charges were found. Still, Alfred Sam defended that he intended to establish and boost inter-trade between Africa and America through coffee, cocoa, and mahogany business. He gained the support of African Pioneer, a newspaper that covers the Back-to-Africa Movement – a movement founded in the 19th century, in the U.S., intending to encourage the Blacks to return to Africa and feel... https://54history.com/alfred-sam-first-african-to-send-a-ship-to-united-states-of-america-to-voyage-blacks-back-to-africa/