The First National Convention: The Meeting that Launched a Movement

40 delegates attended the 1830 convention, but only 17 of them attended any subsequent conventions. The majority of the 1830 convention attendees, then, were made up of individuals who, for various reasons, were not actively involved in what would eventually become the Colored Conventions movement. Richard Allen, for example, the president of this 1830 convention, did not attend future conventions because he passed away only a few months after this first meeting [1]. Hezekiah Grice, another key figure in the first convention, also did not attend future conventions and eventually emigrated to Haiti [2].

This visualization below represents the network of 1830 delegate attendance to future conventions. Red dots represent attendees; blue dots represent conventions; and purple lines connecting the dots represent the fact that the delegate attended the convention with which he is connected. 

Hover over over each dot to find out which conventions delegates attended. 

Credit to Jim Casey for creating this visualization.

Citations

[1] Newman, Richard S. Freedom's Prophet: Bishop Richard Allen, the AME Church, and the Black Founding Fathers. New York: New York University Press, 2008.

[2] Pamphile, Léon Dénius. Haitians and African Americans: A Heritage of Tragedy and Hope. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2001.