Andrew T. Judson

Andrew Thompson Judson (November 29, 1784 – March 17, 1853) was a United States representative from Connecticut and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut. He also served in the Connecticut House of Representatives. He was a member of the Toleration Party and an officer of the American Colonization Society. A leading white supremacist, he led opposition to Prudence Crandall's school for African Americans in Connecticut and advocated for African Americans to be subjugated or sent to Africa. He also opposed the establishment of a college for African Americans in New Haven. As a judge in the United States v. The Amistad, he ruled the enslaved captives aboard La Amistad be released and returned to Africa.

Education and early career Judson was born on November 29, 1784, in Eastford, Windham County, Connecticut, the son of Elisabeth (Work) and Andrew Judson. Judson received limited schooling and read law in 1806.

Connecticut politician He was a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1816, and from 1822 to 1825. After a severe struggle the Tolerationists, aided by the Democrats, succeeded in setting aside the charter that was granted by Charles II of England, and adopted the new Constitution of 1818, which remained in effect until 1965.

White supremacist and colonizationist

Judson was the leading enemy of African Americans in the state of Connecticut. He believed that they were inferior to whites, and if not in use as slaves, should be moved to Africa, "where they came from". He was an officer of the American Colonization Society, which raised funds for the relocation of a few thousand African Americans to the land that became Liberia.

Proposed college for African Americans in New Haven

In 1831, minister Simeon Jocelyn proposed establishing a "colored" college in New Haven. At a town meeting called by Judson, the vote was 99% for rejection.

Led the opposition to Prudence Crandall's school for black girls A similar incident soon followed in Judson's hometown, Canterbury. Although he had earlier welcomed Prudence Crandall's Canterbury Female Boarding School, She was found guilty, but upon appeal, the appeals court, apparently seeking a way to avoid taking a position, dismissed the case on a technicality. At this point opposition to Crandall's school became violent: an attempt to set the building on fire, an attack at night breaking all the windows. For her students' safety she closed the school, and left the state. Since 2014 she has been Connecticut's state heroine.

While this was going on, Judson explained his position to one of Crandall's supporters, the Brooklyn, Connecticut, abolitionist minister Samuel J. May: Mr. May, we are not merely opposed to the establishment of that school in Canterbury; we mean there shall not be such a school set up anywhere in our State. The colored people never can rise from their menial condition in our country; they ought not to be permitted to rise here. They are an inferior race of beings, and never can or ought to be recognized as the equals of the whites. Africa is the place for them. I am in favor of the Colonization scheme. Let the niggers and their descendants be sent back to their fatherland and there improve themselves as much as they may, and civilize and Christianize the natives, if they can. ...You are violating the Constitution of our Republic, which settled forever the status of the black men in this land. They belong to Africa. Let them be sent back there, or kept as they are here. The sooner you Abolitionists abandon your project the better for our country, for the niggers, and yourselves.

Judson did appear as a character witness on behalf of Reuben Crandall, Prudence's brother, a physician who was arrested in Washington, D.C., for (illegally) possessing abolitionist literature and was nearly lynched. He did so because Reuben had recommended to Prudence that she abandon her plans to educate black girls in Connecticut. The prosecutor was Francis Scott Key, former partner of Roger Taney, who hoped to use the trial to advance the cause of colonization; he was a founding member of the American Colonization Society. After eight months in jail Reuben Crandall was found not guilty, but died shortly after of tuberculosis contracted in jail. Another source says that he was defeated for reelection. During that time the abolitionist, and mentor of Prudence Crandall, William Lloyd Garrison sent him a petition from 46 residents of Brooklyn, Connecticut, urging him to end slavery in the District of Columbia. Judson made no response.