Education's Inequity: Opposition to Black Higher Education in Antebellum Connecticut

Abstract

New Haven, thou hast rashly done a deed,Which shrouds thy glory in a black eclipse;Whereof in view the hearts of good men bleed,The friend, yet, strange to tell, the foe of light!Preceptor of the age, yet dost denyTo Brethren—countrymen—the common rightTheir empty minds with knowledge to supply!Encourager of learning-science-artsYet hostile to a race who fain would learn!When from the dust a sable brother starts,Suffering thy cheeks with angry fire to burn!Would I might give the honors of Old Yale,To blot from history's page this most disgraceful tale.—William Lloyd Garrison, October 8, 1831.In the late 1820s, African Americans’ access to primary and religious instruction expanded significantly throughout the urban Northeast, yet barriers to their higher education remained firm. Segregated in public “African” schools, blacks were also barred from most private academies. Collegiate education similarly remained out of reach. In response, an alliance of black and white abolitionists launched a campaign to build a separate “African” college in 1831. Two ministers, one black, Peter Williams from New York, the other white, Simeon Jocelyn from New Haven, led the endeavor. After much consideration, they selected New Haven, Connecticut to house the new institution, believing that in “no place in the Union” is the “situation [of blacks] more comfortable, or the prejudices of a community weaker against them.” On September 5, 1831, Williams and Jocelyn announced their intentions. Their timing could not have been worse.