Description

Holograph, signed.Title devised by cataloger.On verso, the letter is addressed to "Wm Lloyd Garrison Esqr Editor of the Liberator Boston." and is postmarked with a red, circular stamp reading, "New Haven CT May 28".Simeon S. Jocelyn writes to William Lloyd Garrison discussing the creation "of an Institution of learning to educate colored young men ... who would have by means of intelligence & science, combined with piety a power to elevate and strengthen their brethren; [and] to censore [sic] the prejudices of the whites". Jocelyn states that Arthur Tappan supports the plan and has donated $1000 for its creation, adding that a site has already been chosen "in the southern section of New Haven". He says the institution would "connect the Mechanics arts & some degree of agriculture and horticulture," as well as be "connected with many useful pursuits, and with the advantages of domestic & social life as would prepare the young men for active life and to aid their brethren in other places in all those things which make men happy and which give them as individuals [and] as communities influence in the world." He then tells Garrison that after being invited by the Rev. Peter Williams to speak to an association planning a high school for African-American youth, they decided to merge their schools, and he asks Garrison to accompany him and Arthur Tappan to present the plan "at the convention of the people of color who meet [the] week after next in Phila[delphia]." Jocelyn also reports...

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Boston Public Library

Record Harvested From

Digital Commonwealth