Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; the story of his life told by his children: volume 1

[260] opposition was dreamed of. Indeed, Mr. Garrison wrote¹ from New Haven that, thanks to Mr. Jocelyn's unselfish ministry for six years, in no place in the Union were the prejudices of the community against the blacks weaker; and it was recommended to the Convention by himself, together with Messrs. Jocelyn and Tappan, on the ground that its inhabitants were ‘friendly, pious, generous and² humane,’ and its laws ‘salutary and protecting to all, without regard to complexion.’

How much Nat Turner, and how much the mere name of ‘college,’ was responsible for the popular explosion in September, can perhaps not now be determined³ On the 10th of that month, at a city meeting expressly called⁴ by the mayor and aldermen, notice was given that the manual-labor college would not be tolerated in New Haven: the pretext being that it was auxiliary to the agitation against the municipal institution of slavery, and ‘incompatible with the prosperity if not the existence’ of Yale College, then largely frequented by Southern students. It was accordingly resolved, with only the⁵ dissenting votes of Mr. Jocelyn and three other citizens (one a Virginian), ‘by the Mayor, Aldermen, Common Council, and Freemen of the City of New Haven,’ ‘that we will resist the establishment of the proposed College in this place by every lawful means.’ Before this ‘respectable’ opposition the flattering estimate of the humanity of the inhabitants fell, together with all hope of making their city the seat of the college.

On his way back to Boston Mr. Garrison delivered in⁶ New Haven (‘the hot-bed of African Colonization’) an address ‘inimical to the Colonization Society,’ which was officially replied to immediately after his departure. At⁷ this time (July 11) he writes to his friend Ebenezer Dole, who had called upon him in his absence: