Town-Gown

The "Negro" College
The Town Meeting
The Committee Opposed
Why It Failed
Why It Mattered
Yale & the South
Colonization
Confederates

Town-Gown

The "Negro" College
The Town Meeting
The Committee Opposed
Why It Failed
Why It Mattered
Yale & the South
Colonization
Confederates

The Town Meeting

A note in the paper on September 10, 1831, announced a town meeting to respond to the vision of a "Negro college" that Simeon Jocelyn had laid out a few days earlier, on September 7, 1831. The paper added the following commentary:

If it is necessary to have an African College in Connecticut, may the projectors of it, on mature consideration, conclude to locate it in the town of Cornwall ... Cornwall possesses many advantages for such an institution, over other places; and it is not among the least of them, that the ladies of that town readily give themselves, better for worse, and worse for better, to the colored gentlemen. This and other considerations may have a strong tendency to draw the proposed College to that town. We hope, therefore, that our citizens will act with coolness on this subject. (104)

The editor of the New Haven Advertiser recounts: "So great was the interest to hear the discussions, that, notwithstanding the excessive heat and almost irrespirable atmosphere of the room, the hall was crowded through the afternoon." Lewis Tappan recalls, "The opposers of the measure rallied in strong force and were vociferous in opposition. Several of them belonged to the legal profession, and by their inflammatory speeches, added greatly to the excitement." (105)

Mayor Kimberly convened a committee to draft resolutions against the "Negro college." This 13-member committee was in many ways a "who's who" of Yale leaders and New Haven's political elite. The committee drafted two resolutions to be voted on at the September 10, 1831, Town Meeting. The first claimed that the existence of a "Negro college" would harm Yale College and the other area schools:

WHEREAS in the opinion of this meeting, Yale College, the institutions for the education of females, and the other schools, already existing in this city, are important to the community and the general interests of science, and as such have been deservedly patronized by the public, and the establishment of a College in the same place to educate the colored population is incompatible with the prosperity, if not the existence of the present institutions of learning, and will be destructive of the best interests of the city: ...

THEREFORE, RESOLVED-by the mayor, aldermen, common council and freemen of the city of New Haven, in city meeting assembled-that we will resist the establishment of the proposed College in this place, by every lawful means. (110)

The second resolution placed the "Negro college" incident in a national context, arguing against the abolition of slavery:

RESOLVED, ... that the propagation of sentiments favorable to the immediate emancipation of slaves in disregard of the civil institutions of the States in which they belong, and as auxiliary thereto the contemporaneous founding of Colleges for educating colored people, is unwarrantable and dangerous interference with the internal concerns of other States, and ought to be discouraged. (111)

Taken together, these resolutions opposed opening a "Negro college" in New Haven because doing so would undermine Yale College and would threaten the stability of our nation.

A vote of 700 - 4 jointly approved these two resolutions, ending any hope of founding a "Negro college" in New Haven. Simeon Jocelyn stood almost alone against literally hundreds of his neighbors, all condemning the college. Only James Donaghe and Roger Sherman Baldwin (later the attorney for the Amistad captives) are known to have voted with him (112).

Neither Jocelyn nor Baldwin is honored today at Yale.

The Committee Against the "Negro" College

In preparation for the Town Meeting to oppose Simeon Jocelyn's proposed "Negro college", Mayor Kimberly convened a committee that included Yale's only Professor of Law, David Daggett, a once and future member of the Yale Corporation; Samuel Hitchcock, with Daggett, one of the founders of Yale's law school; Judge Bristol, another former Yale Corporation member; Issac Townsend, who would later join Daggett and Hitchcock as a Yale law school professor; and Augustus Street, a significant donor after whom Yale named its first art building and two endowed professorships.

The committee was in many ways a "who's who" of the legal and political elite of New Haven and Yale. Of New Haven's five active lawyers, four were on this committee (Daggett, Ingersoll, Smith, Kimberly) (106) as were three judges (Daggett, Bristol, Baldwin), the current mayor (Kimberly) (107), and the sitting representative to the U.S. Congress (Ingersoll).

Only four people are known to have spoken in opposition to the "Negro college" at the Town Meeting: (108)

• David Daggett (Yale 1783) was at the time Yale's only Professor of Law (though he collaborated with Samuel Hitchcock, below, at the New Haven Law School which eventually merged with Yale). In 1831 he was Associate Justice of Connecticut's Superior Court, and the next year would be appointed Chief Justice of Connecticut's Supreme Court. He served on the Yale Corporation three times (1803-04; 1809-13; and 1832-34) and served two terms as Mayor of New Haven (1828-1830).
  
• I[ssac]. H. Townsend (Yale 1822, MA 1825) took over the leadership of Yale's Law School (1842-7), as Daggett and Hitchcock neared the end of their careers.
• Nathan Smith (Yale M.A. Hon 1808) was serving as prosecuting Attorney for New Haven County (1817-1835), and had been U.S. Attorney for Connecticut in 1828. He would be elected to the U.S. Senate in 1832.109
  
• R[alph]. I. Ingersoll (Yale 1808) was New Haven's Representative to the U.S. Congress, and had been New Haven's mayor until a few months prior. A few years later, Ingersoll would represent the Spanish Crown in the Amistad affair [A4].

In addition to these four people, the full committee of leaders drafting the resolutions against the "Negro college" included:

• Dennis Kimberly (Yale 1812) was Mayor of New Haven, and practiced law in New Haven.
• S[amuel] J. Hitchcock (Yale 1809) is considered one of the founders of the Yale Law School, together with David Daggett. In 1831 he was running New Haven's private law school, which had affiliated with Yale and would later merge with Yale to become its Law School.
• Augustus Street (Yale 1812) was a wealthy New Haven merchant and a major Yale donor, after whom is named "Street Hall," which stands today on the corner of Chapel & High Streets.
• Judge [William] Bristol (Yale 1798) was a federal judge of the District Court of Connecticut, a former member of the Yale Corporation (1818-1820), and a former New Haven Mayor.
• Judge [Simeon] Baldwin (Yale 1781) was a retired judge of the Connecticut Supreme Court. He had also served as U.S. Congressman (1803-1805), and as Mayor of New Haven (1826) [TG6].
• Dr. Punderson (Yale 1804) practiced medicine in New Haven.
• Jehiel Forbes, Samuel Wadsworth, and John Durrie did not graduate from Yale, and were probably lawyers from the surrounding area.

The committee drafted two resolutions opposing the idea of a "Negro college" in New Haven. The resolutions were approved at the September 10, 1831, Town Meeting.

David Daggett and Samuel Hitchcock are honored by two of the three symbols in the Yale Law School shield, which is reprinted today on business cards, letters, and publications.

Newspaper reports of the Town Meeting indicate that Yale college figured prominently in the rationale for rejecting the "Negro college". After the failure of the New Haven effort, it took more than 20 years before efforts to found a black college in the U.S.A. succeeded.