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National Endowment for the Humanities

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The National Endowment for the Humanities

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Lanson was the key figure in two huge construction projects that changed the future of the city: the extensions of Long Wharf and the Farmington Canal. The building of the wharf in New Haven was one of the most impressive engineering accomplishments in the city's history. Lanson contracted to complete the final 1,350-foot stretch, making it possible for larger cargo ships to dock. While other builders used wood on previous sections, Lanson, with a crew of African-American men, cut stone from Blue Mountain in East Haven and transported the rock on specially built scows. The boats carried as much as 25 tons of stone to the wharf.

In 1825, politician and abolitionist James Hillhouse hired Lanson to construct the New Haven section of the Farmington Canal. Lanson reportedly hired twenty to thirty African-American men to quarry and transport the stone to build walls "two thousand and ten feet in length, eight feet thick at bottom, six at top, and eight feet high," according to Lanson's son Isaiah. Though he never received all of the pay that was owed him, Lanson made sure to pay all his workers.

By the 1830s, according to Isaiah, Lanson's worth was around $20,000. In addition, he was well known and respected. Rev. Timothy Dwight of Yale praised Lanson as a good and honorable member of society.

Lanson owned property, called "New Guinea," near an Irish section of the city, and later decided to purchase a former slaughterhouse, which he developed into a series of "sheds and barracks for his tenants and customers," as New Haven businessman Gardiner Morse described. His other business ventures included a livery stable, store, and hotel. His Liberian Hotel, located in a section of the city called New Liberia, provided lodging that boasted furnishings worth $1,000.

In 1825, Lanson was elected "African King," or Black governor, of New Haven, a title reserved for African-American community leaders throughout New England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. With the city's Black community, he helped create the African United Ecclesiastical Society, which later became the Dixwell Avenue Congregational Church. Lanson sheltered enslaved runaways from the South, and also coordinated private religious gatherings for them. When a law forbidding African Americans to vote was passed in 1814, Lanson and others petitioned for voting rights or to be exempt from taxation. The bold filing with the Connecticut General Assembly revealed the depths of Lanson's fight for justice. Within the pages of the Columbian Register, he declared African Americans to be an "industrious" and quality people.

But in 1831, after Nat Turner led a rebellion of Black slaves in southeastern Virginia killing more than fifty white people, support for African-American freedom in New Haven dissipated and turned into anger toward Lanson. Whites in New Haven organized to systematically rid themselves of African-American challenges to white success. Although New Haven's African-American community of six hundred was considered to be one of the safest in the country from white hostilities, enraged whites targeted efforts of uplift for Blacks, such as a plan by Simeon Jocelyn, a respected white religious and antislavery leader, to build a college for African-American residents. Using Nat Turner's education as fuel, white groups turned their anger against the establishment of the "Negro College." Even New Haven's mayor and aldermen, who normally embraced the positives of education, condemned the establishment of the "Negro College" for the "supposed harm" it would bring to white students at Yale, female seminaries, and other schools. After Irish immigrants learned that the curriculum at the college included mechanical and industrial education, they too raged against the potential of competition from well-trained African-American workers. Opposition came from the press, such as the Connecticut Herald, New Haven Palladium, Connecticut Journal, and Columbian Register. In one of the most vicious attacks on Lanson, the Columbian Register, a democratic publication, declared Lanson to be in charge of a criminal enterprise, which the paper referred to as an "African college" of vice led by President Lanson in the city.

Riots erupted in the New Guinea and New Liberia sections of New Haven; a white mob rampaged through the area seeking whites engaged in immoral vice and allowed people of African ancestry to flee. Though poor areas of most cities included pockets of crime, Lanson insisted that his businesses were enterprising and upstanding. According to historian Katherine Harris, Lanson could not fathom why, throughout the 1830s, authorities called him before the courts so much. But many in power held Lanson responsible for corruption in the city. Local police, particularly Officer Jesse Knevalis, maintained a constant "surveillance for months at a time" on Lanson's activities. On December 13, 1845, the Hartford Daily Courant published a short story from New Haven that joyously announced that finally Lanson, the "former proprietor of the Liberia Hotel, and rascal who has caused much trouble in the city has been found guilty, convicted, and sentenced to six months imprisonment in the County Jail, and a fine of $50." Even forty plus years later in 1887, Gardiner Morse, a local tax collector and foe, referred to Lanson as the "king of the colored race," then coldly remarked that Lanson once found himself forced to relinquish control of properties on Franklin Street and had to move to the waterfront.

In 1851, Lanson died, following several years of poor health and business problems. Throughout his life, he had challenged laws that prohibited African Americans from voting. He had supported runaways via the Underground Railroad, and helped create independent religious institutions for African Americans. His work on Long Wharf and the Farmington Canal changed the industry and fortune of New Haven. He not only hired African-American workers but also paid them fairly. It was his support, along with that of other early founders, that allowed for the establishment and flowering of New Haven's Dixwell Avenue Congregational Church.

No image of Lanson exists, but a movement has emerged to honor his memory. In September 2020, sculptor Dana King and community supporters saw the unveiling of King's seven-foot bronze image of William Lanson on the Farmington Canal Trail in New Haven. In addition, the Connecticut Humanities Council awarded a grant to Site Projects, Inc., to develop an educational program on Lanson. His story, says Laura Clarke, director of Site Projects, "in all its glory and tragedy," needs to be told.

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In 1825, Lanson was elected "African King," or Black governor, of New Haven, a title reserved for African-American community leaders throughout New England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

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Vol. XXV No. 1 2013

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 Day 4: William Lanson, the Black entrepreneur who helped build New Haven

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 Day 4: William Lanson, the Black entrepreneur who helped build New Haven

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CT Insider Magazine

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Day 5: The Successes and Struggles of New Haven Entrepreneur William Lanson, 

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Day 5: The Successes and Struggles of New Haven Entrepreneur William Lanson, 

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CT History.org

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The Successes and Struggles of New Haven Entrepreneur William Lanson, CT History

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CT History.org

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William Lanson Statue Taps Into City's Black History

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William Lanson Statue Taps Into City's Black History

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Arts Council of Greater New Haven

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William Lanson Statue Taps Into City's Black History

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Uruguayan Muralist Makes King Lanson Soar

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Uruguayan Muralist Makes King Lanson Soar

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New Haven Independent

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Uruguayan Muralist Makes King Lanson Soar

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King Lanson Finds Home At The New Haven Museum

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King Lanson Finds Home At The New Haven Museum

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Arts Council of Greater New Haven

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King Lanson Finds Home At The New Haven Museum

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An extremely rare 1830 plan of New Haven, Connecticut documenting its evolution from a maritime economy to a major New England manufacturing center.
The plan represents the first significant improvement on Amos Doolittle's 1812 Plan of New Haven, which had been only lightly improved and updated in editions of 1817 and 1824, while the significant growth of the city in the interim necessitated a new survey. Indeed the 1830 Census found that the city's population had grown by no less than 42% in the past decade, from 7147 to 10,180.

The plan's most prominent feature is the original symmetrical grid of blocks surrounding a central Public Square, bounded by George, Grove, state and York Streets, a layout tracing back the city's founding in 1638. Reflecting growth in the early 19 th century, more recent development is shown in every direction, particularly to the east in the direction of the Mill River and to the south along the Harbor. Throughout, shading is used to indicate areas occupied by buildings. An inset at upper right depicts the village of Fair Haven, situated between the Mill and Quinnipiac Rivers, which had been annexed to New Haven in 1784, the year that city was incorporated.

By 1830 New Haven's economy had long since shifted to a manufacturing basis, most famously arms production at the factory founded by Eli Whitney. But much about the plan reveals New Haven's maritime and mercantile roots, particularly the enormous Union Wharf extending into the harbor, the shipyard on the north side of Union Basin, and the rope walk adjacent to Water Street just east of the harbor.

Other points of particular interest include Yale College to the northwest of the Square, the new State House (finished in 1828), ten places of worship identified in a legend at left, and the lower reaches of the Farmington Canal including five locks. The New Haven-to-Farmington stretch of the Canal had been opened in 1828, just two years prior to this plan's publication, and by 1835 it would be opened all the way to Northampton, Massachusetts. It was never financially successful, though, and within a few years the Canal Company had sold its right of way to the New Haven and Northampton Railroad.

The plan is extremely rare: We find but two holdings in institutional collections and no other record of its having appeared on the antiquarian market. An updated edition appeared in 1849, depicting a changed city, greatly expanded and shaped by the arrival of the railroad.

David W. Buckingham
The plan was surveyed and drawn by Buckingham (1797-1886), who in truth is something of a cipher. Little has been established about his early career, beyond the fact that he described himself as New Haven County Surveyor on this map and retains the title on the 1849 re-issue, though the earliest notices of the map's publication make no mention of him at all. The closest thing we have found to a biographical sketch is laughably thin and sheds zero light on his activities as a surveyor.

"David W. Buckingham, son of Ebenezer and Olive ( Woodnff) Buckingham, born Sept. 27, 1797; was twice married : (1.) To Maria Hannah Potter, Oct. 24, 1824. She was born Oct. 3, 1805, and died May 10, 1842. (2.) To Charlotte Hays Pardee, August 23, 1843. Mr. Buckingham resides in Chapel Street. New Haven, has been a grocery merchant, and has now retired from active business. He has in his possession a silver-mounted cane, marked S. B., which was given him by his father." (Rev. F. W. Chapman, A.M., The Buckingham Family. Hartford: Case, Lockwood & Brainard, 1872, p. 440)

A few later references mention him as holding minor civic positions, for example as one of no fewer than 24 Inspectors and Measurers of Wood and Charcoal (1866-67). Another work describe him only as "a retired merchant." We find no mention of him in the contemporary press until 1884, and then only in connection with a 10-room home on Chapel Street he is seeking to rent out. Oddly, the Morning Journal-Courier for March 2, 1885 describes him as "one our best known old citizens, residing at 1,194 Chapel Street".

The Jocelyn Brothers and Charles Darling
Nathaniel Jocelyn (1796-1881) and his younger brother Simeon Smith Jocelyn (1799-1879) were the leading engravers in New Haven from about 1820 to about 1850; they are best known as map engravers but were also among the most important American banknote engravers of their day. Both men were also skilled painters, and active in the Abolitionist movement. Simeon joined the clergy in 1829, and juggled his two vocations to about 1850, when he gave up engraving.

In mid-1830, the brothers formed a (short-lived) partnership with another New Haven man, Charles Chauncey Darling (1799-1887), announced in the [New Haven] Columbian Register

"N & S.S. JOCELYN and CHARLES C. DARLING have formed a Co-partnership under the firm of Jocelyn, Darling & Co. for the purpose of carrying on the publication of MAPS, PRINTS, ATLASSES, and other works ..." (August 7, 1830, page 3).

Although this is the earliest announcement of the partnership traced, the partnership was already operating, and was clearly formed to publish this plan of New Haven.

Publication History
The earliest newspaper announcement traced, placed by the partners in June 1830, comes late in the preparation of the map. Clearly, the partners had previously circulated proposals to publish the map by subscription, and Buckingham had since completed the base survey of New Haven. The June 1830 advertisement sought help in perfecting the survey,

"CITY MAP. PERSONS who are acquainted with any contemplated roads, wharves, or improvements of a similar character, in this city, will oblige the subscribers by making it known to them immediately, for the purpose of having it added to the Map of the city, now engraving. - Owing to the necessity of a new survey of the city, and the time required to collect information to make a correct and valuable map, it will not be completed quite as soon as was expected. It is believed, however, that every subscriber will be well satisfied with the delay of a few weeks, that it may be the more perfect." ( Connecticut Journal, June 1, 1830, page 3).

Publication, with the first reference to Buckingham, was announced in the Columbian Register on October 23:

"CITY MAP. Just published and for sale by JOCELYN, DARLING & CO. At No.3 Bradley's Buildings, The Map of the City of New-Haven. THE Map is from actual survey by D. W. Buckingham, County Surveyor, and embraces new streets and other improvements.

"A large number of the streets have recently been named by the City Authorities, and are all inserted in the Map." (p. 1)

In all, a rare and important plan of New Haven, published at a time of transformative growth.
References
Thompson, Maps of Connecticut, #69 (Yale only). OCLC 47152574 (CT State Library) and 1275786936 (Yale), as of Dec. 2021. Yale's Beinecke Library in fact has three examples. Of these one (copy 2) is not described in the online catalog, while copy 1 originally sold as a wall-map, and copy 3 is printed on bank note paper and folded into the original paper covers.

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One of the rarest of early New Haven maps

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An extremely rare 1830 plan of New Haven, Connecticut documenting its evolution from a maritime economy to a major New England manufacturing center. The plan

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New Haven first HBC?