[Footnote 1: John W. Cromwell: _The Early Negro Convention Movement_.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., 5.]

This September meeting was held in Bethel A.M.E. Church. Bishop Richard
Allen was chosen president, Dr. Belfast Burton of Philadelphia and
Austin Steward of Rochester vice-presidents, Junius C. Morell of
Pennsylvania secretary, and Robert Cowley of Maryland assistant
secretary. There were accredited delegates from seven states. While this
meeting might really be considered the first national convention of
Negroes in the United States (aside of course from the gathering of
denominational bodies), it seems to have been regarded merely as
preliminary to a still more formal assembling, for the minutes of the
next year were printed as the "Minutes and Proceedings of the First
Annual Convention of the People of Color, held by adjournments in the
city of Philadelphia, from the sixth to the eleventh of June, inclusive,
1831. Philadelphia, 1831." The meetings of this convention were held in
the Wesleyan Church on Lombard Street. Richard Allen had died earlier in
the year and Grice was not present; not long afterwards he emigrated
to Hayti, where he became prominent as a contractor. Rev. James W.C.
Pennington of New York, however, now for the first time appeared on the
larger horizon of race affairs; and John Bowers of Philadelphia served
as president, Abraham D. Shadd of Delaware and William Duncan of
Virginia as vice-presidents, William Whipper of Philadelphia as
secretary, and Thomas L. Jennings of New York as assistant secretary.
Delegates from five states were present. The gathering was not large,
but it brought together some able men; moreover, the meeting had some
distinguished visitors, among them Benjamin Lundy, William Lloyd
Garrison, Rev. S.S. Jocelyn of New Haven, and Arthur Tappan of New York.