Massachusetts General Colored Association

Several members of the Prince Hall Lodge{{#tag:ref|The founding members have also been defined as African American men who owned clothing stores or were tailors.{{cite book|author=Nina Mjagkij|title=Organizing Black America: An Encyclopedia of African American Associations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cfESrcLSbCcC&pg=PA282|accessdate=23 April 2013|date=1 September 2003|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-203-80119-2|pages=282}}|group="nb"}} met in 1826 and established the Massachusetts General Colored Association "to promote the welfare of the race by working for the destruction of slavery." The elected officers were

• Thomas Dalton (abolitionist), President
• William Guion Nell, Vice President
• James George Barbadoes, Secretary.

One of their most influential founders was David Walker, who probably expressed many of their ideas in his 1829 Appeal in Four Articles to the Colored Citizens of the World. Walker had moved to Boston and in 1825 was the owner of a used clothing store. In March 1827, he began writing for and selling subscriptions to Freedom's Journal, the first national newspaper in the country published by blacks.

Other founding members included Walker Lewis, John Scarlett, and John T. Hilton. The organization was said to have had "among its leaders the most spirited and intelligent colored citizens of Boston."{{cite book|author=Cromwell|title=The Other Brahmins: Boston's Black Upper Class, 1750-1950|url=https://archive.org/details/otherbrahminsbos00crom|url-access=registration|accessdate=23 April 2013|year=1994|publisher=University of Arkansas Press|isbn=978-1-61075-293-0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/otherbrahminsbos00crom/page/39 39]}}

The organization was concerned with the following:

• Abolishing Massachusetts's laws that were discriminatory, such as segregated public accommodations and prohibition of inter-racial marriages
• Abolishing slavery
• Uplifting individuals through education and religion

It was one of the first organizations of free blacks in Boston to directly address slavery.

Association members were also active in organizations to furthered their objectives, such as the African Society, the African School and the African Baptist Church. As Donald M. Jacobs remarked: "Boston's best-known black abolitionists were also dominant figures in the black churches."{{cite book|author=Donald M Jacobs|title=Courage and Conscience: Black & White Abolitionists in Boston|url=https://archive.org/details/courageconscienc00jaco|url-access=registration|accessdate=23 April 2013|year=1993|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-20793-7|pages=[https://archive.org/details/courageconscienc00jaco/page/180 180]}}

The group also supported the Freedom's Journal, the country's first black newspaper which was published in New York City.

File:1834 NewEngland AntiSlavery BoylstonHall Boston.png

In January 1833, Dalton as president led a successful petition for the Massachusetts General Colored Association{{cite book|author=William Lloyd Garrison|title=The Abolitionist|url=https://archive.org/details/abolitionist00socigoog|accessdate=23 April 2013|year=1833|publisher=New England Anti-Slavery Society|page=[https://archive.org/details/abolitionist00socigoog/page/n30 20]}} to join the New England Anti-Slavery Society founded by William Lloyd Garrison, editor of The Liberator. Together they organized Anti-Slavery conventions and speaking programs throughout New England.

Sometime after Joshua Easton was sent as a delegate to the New England society in 1833, African Americans were granted full membership in the organization.

In 1844, the Massachusetts General Colored Association published Light and Truth by Robert Benjamin Lewis, the first history of the colored race written by an African American.Lewis, Robert Benjamin. Light And Truth; Collected From The Bible And Ancient And Modern History, Containing The Universal History Of The Colored And The Indian Race, From The Creation Of The World To The Present Time. Joining the New England Anti-Slavery Society provided greater participation by Boston's African American community.{{cite book|author=James Brewer Stewart|title=William Lloyd Garrison at Two Hundred: History, Legacy, and Memory|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C-iYaKOMMa0C&pg=PA74|accessdate=23 April 2013|date=7 October 2008|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-15240-1|page=74}}

"Although the all-black association was short lived, its members helped create a new era of militant antislavery agitation that shook the nation before the Civil War."

• Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society

{{Reflist|group="nb"}}

{{Reflist}}

• Hinks, Peter P. (1996). To Awaken My Afflicted Brethren: David Walker and the Problem of Antebellum Slave Resistance. University Park, Penn.: Pennsylvania State University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-271-01578-1}}.
• Horton, James Oliver. (1976). Generations of Protest: Black Families and Social Reform in Ante-Bellum Boston. The New England Quarterly 49.2: 242-256.
• Jacobs, Donald M (1971). William Lloyd Garrison's Liberator and Boston's Blacks, 1830-1865. The New England Quarterly 44.: 259-277.

{{Boston African American community pre-Civil War|state=expanded}}

Category:19th century in Boston

Category:1826 establishments in Massachusetts

Category:Pre-emancipation African-American history

Category:1820s in the United States

Category:American abolitionist organizations