National Negro Convention Reconvenes After Decade Gap in Buffalo

The National Negro Convention reconvened in Buffalo after a hiatus since 1835, with Henry Highland Garnet, Frederick Douglass, and Charles Lenox Remond as delegates. The convention debated Garnet's incendiary address, Black political party affiliation, and whether the Constitution was a pro- or anti-slavery document. By splitting on these questions, it revealed the maturing complexity of Black political thought and the fracture lines that would define 1850s strategy.