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Charles L. Reason

1818-1898

Name: Charles L. Reason

Birthplace: NY

Status: Born free

Occupation: Educator, Scholar, Poet, Crusader

Residences: PA, NY



Abolitionist Involvement: Reason graduated from the African School No. 1 in New York, and then served for several years as assistant to its principal, John Peterson, at the Normal School. He was then appointed Professor of Belle Lettres, French and Mathematics at the New York Central College at McGrawville, which had been founded by the American Baptist Free Missionary Society. Except for a short period of time, he was involved in education in New York schools for his entire career, from 1832 - 1892. During that brief time, between 1852-1855, he lived in Philadelphia where he was principal at the Institute for Colored Youths. During his term in Pennsylvania, he changed the focus of the Institute from agricultural classes to academics. Although it was a secondary school, its classes in science and mathematics under Reason's stewardship were said to be comparable to those at many colleges of the time.





In 1840, Reason attended the New York State Convention at Albany, where he was elected secretary. The delegates drew up an 'Address to the Black Population' and exhorted them to send petitions to the legislature for the right to vote. In 1846, upon the death of Thomas Clarkson, a co-worker of British abolitionist William Wilberforce, Reason composed and recited a moving 42-stanza poem in Clarkson's honor at a commemorative service.

A fervent opponent of the colonization effort by the American Colonization Society, Reason met with other abolitionist leaders at the Shiloh Presbyterian Church in New York in 1849 to speak out publicly against the ACS's claim that most Blacks wished to be colonized in Africa. An active member of the General Vigilance Committee, he also worked for the underground railroad assisting fugitive slaves.





Family: Parents - fled Haiti and settled in NY prior to his birth; brother, Patrick



Place of Death: NY



References:Black Abolitionists, by Benjamin Quarles; There is a River, by Vincent Harding; Aristocrats of Color, by Willard Gatewood.

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