The New Haven Negro College and the Meanings of Race in New England, 1776-1870

Stewart discusses the history of the New Haven Negro College and the meanings of race in New England. The plan for the college was unveiled in Philadelphia on Jun 11, 1831 at the First Annual Convention of the Free People of Color by three freshly minted white abolitionists including Arthur Tappan, William Llyod Garrison, and Simeon Jocelyn. More important, however, Stewart wanted to acknowledge the problem of addressing a wide range of belief on the origin of New Haven with some people regarding race as a self-evident fact and others, conscious of their mixed backgrounds, resisting the dialectic of black vs. white.