The First National Convention: The Meeting that Launched a Movement

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The 1830 convention minutes feature a “Constitution,” ostensibly to direct future conventions. Spanning pages five through eight out of the eleven total pages of the convention’s minutes, this constitution serves as the centerpiece. In fact, this convention’s title begins by labeling itself a “Constitution.”

The rules found within its ten articles, however, do not appear to have been followed in subsequent conventions. The first article states, “This society shall be called "The American Society of Free Persons of Colour,” and, as demonstrated in the previous page, this title was not retained.

The second article stipulates, “The society shall meet quarterly in the city of Philadelphia on the first Monday in October, January, April, and July.” This rule also was not followed. The 1831 national convention, on the other hand, explicitly labels itself an “annual” convention, and the next four conventions held in 1832 to 1835 follow that annual model. In addition, future conventions routinely referred to the “rules and regulations” of prior conventions, but the 1830 convention appears to have been left out of this network.