The Other Tradition: Amity Friendship and Collaboration

In honor of Black History Month, the Tuesday morning Adult Spiritual Growth group is reading a book titled Race Amity: A Primer on America’s Other Tradition. The “Other Tradition” is based on amity and the assumption that there are two primary affinity relationships in human affairs. The first is love and caring for family. The second is love and caring for friends. This organization believes that when amity exists among people, there is a genuine commitment and support that includes a willingness to take risks and engage in personal sacrifice.

I first heard about this book when one of its authors, William (Smitty) Smith, came to southwest County Kerry, Ireland, and spoke at the Derrynane House, the ancestral home of Daniel O’Connell. O’Connell, known as ‘The Liberator,’ was a lawyer, politician, and statesman who worked tirelessly to bring Catholicism back to Ireland and championed the civil and religious liberties of people throughout the world.

Smith came to Ireland to discuss the relationship between O'Connell and Frederick Douglass, American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. In 1845, Douglass was touring Britain and Ireland following the publication of his Life of an American Slave, when he attended a meeting in Dublin where he heard O'Connell speak: “I have been assailed for attacking the American institution, as it is called – Negro slavery. I am not ashamed of that attack. I do not shrink from it. I am the advocate of civil and religious liberty all over the globe and wherever tyranny exists…. My heart walks abroad, and wherever the miserable are to be succored, or the slave to be set free, there my spirit is at home, and I delight to dwell.”  O’Connell and Douglass became lifelong friends after this chance meeting.

The relationship between O’Connell and Douglass is a prime example of the “Other Tradition” espoused by the Race Amity group, which was founded in 2010 as a 501.3c. Its mission statement is:

Race amity is a framework that can move the public discourse on race from the “blame/grievance/rejection” cycle to one of “amity/collaboration/access and equity.” While most discussions on race in America focus primarily on the dominant tradition of racism and oppression, we look at the always-present moral counterweight of close, loving friendship and collaboration, which is “the other tradition.” 

The Race Amity book is a historical journey highlighting the many friendships that grew out of a mutual understanding between nations, races, and cultures. Our class was particularly affected by the number of people right here in Connecticut who worked towards a peaceful relationship among the races (thank you, Jan Baker, for your research that prompted this essay). Many people know about Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and avid abolitionist, but there are other stories of lesser-known Connecticut residents who spoke out against slavery that you may not know.

Slavery in Connecticut dates back to the mid-1600s. These are just a couple of stories about the “Other Tradition” being put to work in Connecticut.

Prudence Crandall

A Quaker abolitionist and teacher, Prudence Crandall bravely defied prevailing patterns of racial discrimination when she opened one of the first schools for African American girls in Connecticut in 1833. Though supported by leading anti-slavery activists—among them William Lloyd Garrison—Crandall, a white woman, faced legal harassment and social ridicule for her efforts to educate free blacks in the North. When residents protested the school’s integration and parents threatened to withdraw their students, Crandall closed her school and reopened in 1833 for Black and Brown students.

Students traveled from several states to attend the school. Connecticut responded by passing the “Black Law,” which prevented out-of-state Black and Brown people from attending school in Connecticut towns without local town approval. It was repealed in 1838. Crandall was arrested, spent one night in jail, and faced three court trials before the case was dismissed. The Prudence Crandall trial and the establishment of the Connecticut Black Law of 1834 were huge setbacks for the abolitionist movement in the state. In 1835, Crandall married Baptist minister and abolitionist Calvin Philleo. The couple left Connecticut, ultimately settling in La Salle County, Illinois, where Crandall ran a school and participated in the women’s suffrage movement.

The Colchester School for Colored Children

The Colchester School building, which remains next to Colchester’s Town Green, was built in 1801 with money bequeathed by wealthy Colchester resident Pierpont Bacon. What set this portion of Bacon Academy apart was it provided education for African Americans, albeit in a separate building, but part of the same institution, nonetheless.

The school was a model of segregated education, but it was also a place where Black children could receive a quality education. The school was well-regarded by the Black community, and some parents even sent their children to live with local residents to attend. The Laws of Bacon Academy adopted in 1803 say this: “Negroes and persons of color shall be provided for in a separate building to be provided by the committee.” This unique place of education drew attention from all over New England and operated for thirty years before integrating into Bacon Academy’s main student body. In 1813, Prince Saunders, a 21-year-old Lebanon-born educator, became a teacher at the School for Colored Children while also taking courses on the classics at Bacon proper. In 1842, Bacon Academy began to admit females to its higher education branches, and in 1848, the school was racially integrated more than a century before Brown v. Board of Education led to the official end of segregation across the rest of the United States.

While it is inspiring to read about the brave people who worked tirelessly to abolish slavery, by the time of the American Revolution, Connecticut had the largest number of slaves in New England. After the war, there was a movement to end slavery in the United States, but in contrast to its neighboring states, Connecticut emancipated its slaves very slowly and cautiously, claiming it wanted to ensure the process respected property rights and did not disrupt civic order. Connecticut passed the Gradual Abolition Act of 1784, but this act did not emancipate any enslaved persons, only those who would be born into slavery and only after they reached the age of 25. This gradual process meant that slavery in Connecticut did not officially end until 1848—long after many other Northern states had abolished the practice.

 -Eileen Brogan