Letter from Simeon Smith Jocelyn, New Haven, [Connecticut], to William Lloyd Garrison, 1831 Sept[ember] 20th

Simeon S. Jocelyn writes to William Lloyd Garrison mentioning the "disgraceful doings of our city" and the need to educate the public about "the necessity of improvement of the free colored people". He tells Garrison that "our coloured friends will do all that the case requires to establish the college" for free African-American men and local newspapers are supporting the cause by condemning New Haven for "its meanness and nonsense" in its resistance to the project. Jocelyn warns Garrison that "on the subject of [slave] insurrections, that we not only pray against them and indulge right feeling" but to remain cautious with their language because "our enemies are watching" and will accuse abolitionists "with the charge of blood shedding." He also says that the opposition to the college has been exposed "simply by calling the institution a College," a name which, "carries the appearance of equality with it." Still, he remains confident that the college will be built "next year somewhere if not here" and shares his hope that the people of New Haven will change their opinions and come to support the College. Jocelyn then reports that the pamphlets of Garrison's address that Garrison previously sent him have "sold very well here." In the postscript, Jocelyn tells Garrison not to publish his letter and to say "that the friends of the College are more determined to carry forward the plan than at any other former period."
Courtesy of Boston Public Library