The complete issues of The Unionist hide some gems. One is the poem, “The Convict Ship,” by T.K.Hervey (1812-1847). Hervey was a student at Amherst College who organized the significant Anti-Slavery Society at the same time that the Canterbury Female Academy was operating. In the records of the Amherst Auxiliary Anti-Slavery Society of July 19, 1833. Hervey made a motion to endorse the Canterbury Female Academy, which was passed unanimously. He attended the 1834 meeting of the New-England Anti-Slavery Society. This incorporation of support from a group of privileged white male youth is quite interesting.

The letter to the editor from “Cato” in the issue of September 5, 1833, is written by an adult Black man, and is both witty and profound in its logic. What makes this even more intriguing is the echo in the choice of the name “Cato” – the pseudonym chosen by a Black author in the wake of the Revolutionary War, aghast as he was at the reimposition of unequal justice. The way in which Black America’s historical memory is maintained is nothing short of miraculous.

In a related vein, it is perhaps merely a coincidence, but the motto for The Unionist - "Righteousness Exalteth a Nation" - is the same masthead motto used by the first African-American newspaper, Freedom's Journal. The scriptural quotation from Proverbs 14:34 is enough of a commonplace to still find ample use and a broad audience. But since Charles C. Burleigh and the Black community of Southeastern Connecticut had been in position to see and understand the significance of Freedom's Journal, the possibility of this being a sly reference cannot be dismissed out of hand.

For Further Reference

• Cochrane, James C. The Anti-Slavery Movement in Hampshire County (1830-1860). Master’s Thesis, Amherst College, 1948.
• Records of the Amherst Auxiliary Anti-Slavery Society, Amherst College Special Collections.