Posted on behalf of Jennifer Rycenga (jennifer.rycenga@sjsu.edu)
The goal of this brief notice is to urge archivists to search for additional copies of The Unionist newspaper.
In 1832, a white teacher in Connecticut, Prudence Crandall (1803 - 1890) admitted a Black woman, Sarah Harris (1812 - 1878), to her select Academy. This started a firestorm of local protest from white parents and civic leaders. Faced with formidable opposition, Crandall recalibrated her efforts "to benefit the people of color"[1] by transforming her Academy into an advanced school exclusively for Black women and girls. When the new school opened in April 1833, local white opposition was constant, operating on dual fronts of legal harassment and vigilante violence. To combat this, Crandall's most stalwart white allies – Samuel J. May (1797 - 1871) and Arthur Tappan (1786 - 1865) – launched a local newspaper to broadcast the rationale for Crandall's school, and unmask the duplicities of her enemies. This newspaper was dubbed The Unionist.
The Unionist started publication on August 1, 1833, and remained active at least through September of 1834. The paper's offices were located in Brooklyn, Connecticut, just north of Canterbury. The Unionist was edited by Charles C. Burleigh (1810 - 1878), a young man in his first major Abolitionist role.[2] Burleigh's brother William, a co-teacher at Crandall's Academy (along with their sister Mary) also assisted with the paper. Their father, Rinaldo Burleigh, was an educator, who worked at two of Eastern Connecticut's finest academies, Woodstock and Plainfield.[3] The community prestige of the family aided in the success of the paper and the cause.
Unfortunately, there are only five surviving issues of this newspaper, inadequately supplemented by scattered reprints of individual articles in other contemporary newspapers. The historic importance of The Unionist newspaper has been enhanced by content found in two previously lost issues recently re-cataloged at the Library of Congress. It is my hope that there are other issues to be discovered.
There are some cogent reasons why copies of this old newspaper may still be lurking in the shadows. The Unionist's location in Brooklyn, Connecticut makes misfiling under Brooklyn, New York a distinct possibility. Stray issues could be lurking uncatalogued in archival collections of abolitionist papers.
The five extant copies are as follows:
Existing issues
- August 8, 1833, 1:2 – New-York Historical Society Library
- September 5, 1833, 1:6 – accessed at American Antiquarian Society
- December 9, 1833, 1:20 – Library of Congress
- March 13, 1834, 1:32 – New-York Historical Society Library
- April 10, 1834, 1:36 – Library of Congress
Extensive excerpts from The Unionist, especially concerning the school's legal trials, are found in The Liberator and in the Connecticut Courant (pointing to full issues from 9/2/1833, 9/9/1833, and 10/14/1833, among others). Records of other citations of The Unionist, aside from those in The Liberator, are also appreciated.
Because of its later historic valence around the Civil War, the word "Unionist" presents difficulties in word searches; fortunately the dates of publication (1833-34) form a small enough window to somewhat obviate this problem. The print run may date from July 25, 1833, and there are external citations from at least one September 1834 issue.
If additional copies of The Unionist are found, they could contain writings by the young Black women students of the Canterbury Academy; recovering these voices and actions is a positive good.
Thank you for your assistance. I can be reached at jennifer.rycenga@sjsu.edu or you can contact Prudence Crandall Museum's Director Joan DiMartino at Joan.DiMartino@ct.gov.
Jennifer Rycenga | San José State University | Professor, Humanities Department
[1] ALS Prudence Crandall to William Lloyd Garrison, January 18, 1833.
[2] Strane, Susan. 1990. A Whole-Souled Woman: Prudence Crandall and the Education of Black Women. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, p. 91-93.
[3] Hebbard, J.C. 1886. Contemporary Reformers: Prudence Crandall's Immediate Co-Workers. Topeka Capitol April 13, 1886.
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Teresa Brinati
Director of Publishing
Society of American Archivists
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