William Howard Day

William Howard Day

William Howard Day is a very prominent figure in the reframing resistance project and abolitionist movement. Day contributed to the public’s knowledge of slavery and abolition through countless articles and public speeches. Day is a connecting link to Chatham, Oberlin, and the United Kingdom through his abolitionist work.   Day was an African American abolitionist and his role as a leader issuing the call for the 1853 National Coloured Convention in Rochester was seen as an example and role model for Oberlin College graduates making a mark in the abolitionist community.1 Day moved to Oberlin in 1843, and was a student at Oberlin College where he graduated in 1847, thus, becoming the third black student to earn a degree from Oberlin College.2. My research on William Howard Day focuses on his abolitionist work from his speeches in North America and the United Kingdom. Through his work, you can see his influence, and prominence in the anti-slavery movement and how it affected those whom he addressed.  I will start by discussing Days contributions and work in Oberlin, Cleveland and Canada, and will then turn to his work in the United Kingdom.

During his studies at Oberlin College, Day was employed at the Oberlin Evangelist, and became a leading figure in the Oberlin Black Community. As well as, helping with Oberlin’s “vigilance committee”. In 1849 Day delivered speech at the “State Convention of the Colored Citizens of Ohio”.3 Upon moving to Cleveland, Day was the editor and started his own Cleveland- based newspaper in 1853, Aliened American, which he said featured “literature science and art to aid the development, educational, mechanical, and social, of Colored Americans.” Day published proceedings from the Ohio State Convention in his newspaper, Aliened American.4 As well, he was active in the Cleveland vigilance committee.5

In 1856 Day and his wife, Lucy Stanton, also an Oberlin College graduate, moved to Buxton, Canada West, which was a haven for fugitive slaves from the United States. They were members of the Chatham Vigilance Committee, which Day chaired.  In 1858 when John Brown, the Ohio abolitionist, visited Canada to recruit supporters for a slave insurgency, Day printed Brown’s “Provisional Constitution” for him.6

Day’s work in his newspaper, Aliened American, shows his continual effort to show and educate on the knowledge of slavery and civil rights. In an 1853 issue of the newspaper Day addresses and thanks his patrons. He states that we have started to succeed and with the help and support of the patronage; we will continue to commence and continue the career of usefulness7.

 

Day, William Howard. “To our Patrons.” Aliened American (Cleveland), April 9, 1853 .http://coloredconventions.org/items/show/1198

Day gave a speech in New York in 1865 at the unveiling of a monument to Abraham Lincoln. Day emphasized Lincoln’s great achievements, but urged for continual efforts for social improvements and civil rights during the reconstruction from the Civil War. Day states that the monument is a monument to liberty, and will rise as a temple to freedom8.

Click here to read more on William Howard Day’s speech: http://libraries.udmercy.edu/archives/special-collections/index.php?record_id=441&collectionCode=baa

In 1859 Day traveled to England to address slavery’s power in North America and to raise a fund for the Elgin Settlement.9 Day’s speeches contain the education of the evils and power of slavery, and depicts that even in the free states, color is still seen as a crime. In the Greenock Advertiser newspaper in Scotland, Day’s speech was reprinted. He noted that the evils of slavery are making its way to Canada and that it’s the duty of the people in the United Kingdom to protest against it. Day states that the Elgin Settlement is a way to meet the evils of slavery.10 

Moreover, Day also addressed the reality that slavery was entrenched in the United States because of the over-reliance on the economic value of cotton.  In Birmingham, England in 1861, Day presents goals of the African Aid Society to help fugitive slaves from Canada immigrate to Africa.11

Click here to read more on the press copy from Birmingham England: http://libraries.udmercy.edu/archives/special-collections/index.php?record_id=754&collectionCode=baa

The Newspaper, Leeds Mercury, published in 1860, addresses Day’s speech in Britain in which Day proposed that the most effective way to end slavery is for Europe to boycott cotton grown in the United States, and to buy it from Africa instead. Day continued by saying that this would remove the power of cotton in the southern states and its contribution to the continuing of slavery12.

Click here to read more on the Leeds Mercury article: http://libraries.udmercy.edu/archives/special-collections/index.php?record_id=252&collectionCode=baa

Throughout Day’s lecture tour of the United Kingdom, Day was very well received and influential. Throughout the examples of  speeches and writings noted above, we can see that Day spoke on the history of the slave system in North and South America and explained that the best method for the resolution of slavery was to set up small cotton farming settlements along the coast of Africa. He also focused on the prospect of liberty and urged the continuation of anti-slavery efforts, and civil rights. William Howard Day openly acted on his antislavery beliefs, urging others to support and stand with him in the fight against slavery across the Atlantic World.

Chelsea Rutherford

 

 

 

Endnotes:

  1. Drapkin, Lindsay. “THE MANUAL LABOR COLLEGE INITIATIVE AND THE 1853 ROCHESTER CONVENTION.” Colored Conventions . 2016. Accessed November 15, 2017. http://coloredconventions.org/exhibits/show/1853-manual-labor/biographies-section/william-howard-day.
  2. Gorman, Ron. “William Howard Day & Lucie Stanton.” Oberlin Heritage Center Blog. April 2, 2014. Accessed November 28, 2017. http://www.oberlinheritagecenter.org/blog/2014/04/william-howard-day-lucie-stanton/.
  3. Gorman, “William Howard Day & Lucie Stanton.”
  4. Drapkin, Lindsay, “THE MANUAL LABOR COLLEGE INITIATIVE AND THE 1853 ROCHESTER CONVENTION.”
  5. Gorman, “William Howard Day & Lucie Stanton.”
  6. Gorman, “William Howard Day & Lucie Stanton.”
  7. Day, William Howard. “To our Patrons.” Aliened American (Cleveland), April 9, 1853. Accessed November 14, 2017. Archive of Americana. http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/HistArchive?p_action=search, 2.
  8. Day, William Howard. “Oration at Celebration by the Colored People’s Educational Monument Association in Memory of Abraham Lincoln .” University of Detroit Mercy. July 4, 1865. Accessed November 14, 2017. http://libraries.udmercy.edu/archives/special-collections/index.php?record_id=441&collectionCode=baa, 10-12.
  9. Hoak, Lisa, Dan Quigley, and Essie Weiss-Tisman. “I Shall Have Your Sympathy, If Your Judgment Refuses Me Your Support”: Lucy Stanton Day, the American Missionary Association, and the Politics of Respectability.” Oberlin College Archives. 2012. Accessed November 22, 2017. http://www2.oberlin.edu/archive/teaching/projects/hist213/stanton/intro.html.
  10. Day, William Howard. “PUBLIC MEETING IN POKT-GLASGOW.” Greenock Advertiser (Renfrewshire, Scotland), December 22, 1859. Accessed November 14, 2017.https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results?basicsearch=william%20howard%20day&retrievecountrycounts=false&page=0.
  11. Day, William Howard. “The American Crisis and The Slave Trade Presscopy.” Birmingham, England — Public Library, December 13, 1861. Accessed November 14, 2017. University of Detroit Mercy. http://libraries.udmercy.edu/archives/special-collections/index.php?record_id=754&collectionCode=baa, 1.
  12. Day, William Howard. “William Howard Day.” Leeds Mercury, December 8, 1860. Accessed November 14, 2017. http://libraries.udmercy.edu/archives/special-collections/index.php?record_id=252&collectionCode=baa, 1.

 

Bibliography

Day, William Howard. “Oration at Celebration by the Colored People’s Educational Monument Association in Memory of Abraham Lincoln .” University of Detroit Mercy. July 4, 1865. Accessed November 14, 2017. http://libraries.udmercy.edu/archives/special-collections/index.php?record_id=441&collectionCode=baa.

Day, William Howard. “PUBLIC MEETING IN POKT-GLASGOW.” Greenock Advertiser (Renfrewshire, Scotland), December 22, 1859. Accessed November 14, 2017. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results?basicsearch=william%20howard%20day&retrievecountrycounts=false&page=0.

Day, William Howard. “The American Crisis and The Slave Trade Presscopy.” Birmingham, England — Public Library, December 13, 1861. Accessed November 14, 2017. University of Detroit Mercy. http://libraries.udmercy.edu/archives/special-collections/index.php?record_id=754&collectionCode=baa

Day, William Howard. “To our Patrons.” Aliened American (Cleveland), April 9, 1853. Accessed November 14, 2017. Archive of Americana. http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/HistArchive?p_action=search

Day, William Howard. “William Howard Day.” Leeds Mercury, December 8, 1860. Accessed November 14, 2017. http://libraries.udmercy.edu/archives/special-collections/index.php?record_id=252&collectionCode=baa.

Day, William Howard. “William Howard Day.” Londonderry Guardian, July 12, 1859. Accessed November 14, 2017. http://libraries.udmercy.edu/archives/special-collections/index.php?collectionCode=baa&record_id=2561&item_id=2980&&embed.

Drapkin, Lindsay. “THE MANUAL LABOR COLLEGE INITIATIVE AND THE 1853 ROCHESTER CONVENTION.” Colored Conventions . 2016. Accessed November 15, 2017. http://coloredconventions.org/exhibits/show/1853-manual-labor/biographies-section/william-howard-day.

Gorman, Ron. “William Howard Day & Lucie Stanton.” Oberlin Heritage Center Blog. April 2, 2014. Accessed November 28, 2017. http://www.oberlinheritagecenter.org/blog/2014/04/william-howard-day-lucie-stanton/.

Hoak, Lisa, Dan Quigley, and Essie Weiss-Tisman. “”I Shall Have Your Sympathy, If Your Judgment Refuses Me Your Support”: Lucy Stanton Day, the American Missionary Association, and the Politics of Respectability.” Oberlin College Archives. 2012. Accessed November 22, 2017. http://www2.oberlin.edu/archive/teaching/projects/hist213/stanton/intro.html.