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Leonard Bacon

Leonard Bacon led the colonization movement in New Haven, was the minister at New Haven's Center Church from 1825-1866 and also served on the Yale Corporation from 1839-46 and 1864-81. In 1846 he was almost selected as the next Yale President, but was beaten out by Theodore Dwight Woolsey.

The fate of the "Negro" college in New Haven in 1831 cannot be understood apart from colonization. In 1827, Leonard Bacon and Simeon Jocelyn worked togetheron a proposal for a seminary that would train free black people to go to Africa to evangelize the growing colonies of former American slaves. Bacon ceased being a partner in these efforts after Jocelyn's vision changed to include a college for African-Americans who planned to stay in America.

As pastor of Center Church, Leonard Bacon contributed towards the creation of the church that became the "Dixwell Ave. Congregational Church". Throughout his 40-year tenure at Center Church, he continued to be a moderate advocate for the end of slavery. He helped convene, in 1856, a meeting to protest the expansion of slavery into Kansas.