Vermonters often take pride in a state history that has strong ties to the abolitionist movement. The state’s history includes stories like that of Alexander Twilight, the first Black American to earn a college degree from an American university. But do Vermonters remember the contributions of Black and Indigenous people fully and honestly?VPR's Mitch Wertlieb spoke with Bill Hart, professor emeritus of history at Middlebury College leading the campus' Twilight Project and author of a forthcoming biography of Alexander Twilight. Their conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Mitch Wertlieb: I know that you're working on a book about Alexander Twilight, and you've written previously about Martin Freeman. For Vermonters who don't know this history, who are these men, and how do we remember them as important figures in Vermont history?
Bill Hart: As you suggested, Alexander Twilight is recognized as the first Black graduate who received a college degree from an American college -- that's Middlebury College. After graduating from Middlebury, he became a traveling itinerant pastor in Vergennes and in Addison. And in time, he wound up in Brownington -- in 1829 -- where he was asked to be the headmaster of the Orleans County Grammar School. He had a very rich life, which was crowned, really, by the fact that he became the first Black legislator elected to a state assembly [in the United States]. That was [in] Vermont, in 1836.
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Martin Freeman graduated from Middlebury College in 1849, as the number-one graduate in his class. He then went on to become the first Black college president of an American college, in Pittsburgh, until the middle of the Civil War. And he became so disillusioned by his treatment, that he left the United States and moved to Liberia to teach at and become president of Liberia College [now the University of Liberia] for the next 25 years.
"He's a man of some racial ambiguity. And so throughout his life, he neither claimed Black identity, nor was identified as Black. And it seems to me that Alexander Twilight was able to 'perform whiteness' ... Twilight just did not choose to identify as a person of color, and others did not, either." - Bill Hart, Middlebury College professor emeritus
These were extraordinary accomplishments that you just listed from both of these men. And you might hear that story, as somebody who doesn't know the larger context and think, "Oh, well, it couldn't have been so difficult." But what are we chiefly missing when we talk about the lives of Alexander Twilight and Martin Freeman?
That's a great question. I think it's important to understand when they were born.
Twilight was born in 1795. He was biracial, himself. We do claim him as a Black man, because his father was biracial, and so Twilight was a man of African descent.
But if you look at his picture, you can see he's a man of some racial ambiguity. And so throughout his life, he neither claimed Black identity, nor was identified as Black. And it seems to me that Alexander Twilight was able to "perform whiteness." I'm reluctant to say, "pass as" white, because that has an intentionality to it. And Twilight just did not choose to identify as a person of color; and others did not, either.
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Martin Freeman, born in 1826: We had Indian Removal underway, we had the American Colonization Society advocating the removal of free Blacks from the United States to Liberia.
So, by the time Twilight hit Middlebury College [from 1821-23], even though we think of Vermont as a strong abolitionist state, most Vermonters supported colonization.
So Vermonters talk about the Underground Railroad, when they were actually encouraging Black Americans not to gain their freedom and stay in America, but to leave for Liberia?
That is right. And so Twilight, apparently, did not experience these pressures, as an racially ambiguous man.
But Freeman, who is phenotypically, unmistakably, a Black man, did face those pressures. And he had to make some choices.
At first, he was reluctant to even buy into this idea of colonization. He said, "I'm a Vermonter; I belong in Vermont. I'm an American. I'm a Middlebury graduate." But in time, when he was asked, "Why are you leaving the U.S.?" [Freeman answered] "I am a man, and the only way I can realize my citizenship, my dignity, my self-determination, is to leave the U.S. and go to Liberia."
Professor Hart, you're engaged in something called the Twilight Project at Middlebury College. It's a three year-project to engage the college community in uncovering and reckoning with the history of exclusion and marginalization at the college. Is it a fact that Frederick Douglass visited Middlebury in 1843 and was, let's say, not exactly welcomed with open arms?
That's right, yes. In 1843, Frederick Douglass came to [the town of] Middlebury. It was part of a 100-city convention tour.
The Middlebury College boys gave him a very rude reception, hooting and hollering, disrupting his speech, placarding the town with posters saying "Arrest this fugitive from slavery who has stolen himself! He belongs in jail!"
These are the kinds of histories and stories that the Twilight Project is inviting students and faculty and others to undertake and present. It can be a research paper, a performance, a film, a collage, a painting, a podcast, however you'd like to present your research findings. We're inviting you to do that.
Professor Hart, as I understand it, you've spent nearly three decades in Vermont yourself. I'm wondering if digging into the lives of these men from so many years ago resulted in any insights or reflection on your own experience in this state in the present day?
"American history is really one of dispossession, and exclusion, dominance of whites over others, and we just need to have this honest conversation about that." - Bill Hart, Middlebury College professor emeritus
Yes. Nothing as egregious as what Kiah Morris experienced several years ago. I think being a Middlebury College professor and living in the town of Middlebury, I've lived a rather privileged existence, day to day here. But I certainly have had my share of racial reminders.
I would go to the farmers market, and people would ask me, "Oh, so where are you visiting us from?" Assuming that, if you're Black, you must not be from Middlebury and maybe not even from Vermont.
I remember shopping in the grocery store, and some people asked me, "Oh, have you just come up from Jamaica to pick apples?" That was a little awkward. And sometimes they'll walk down the street and somebody will say, "Oh, I just read this book about Frederick Douglass" or about some other Black figure, and I thought of you, Bill!"
How do you handle that sort of thing, though? When someone says, I'm assuming here, "Oh, I read that book on Frederick Douglass and thought of you, Bill," I imagine they were trying to be well-meaning, [that] they were not trying to be dismissive of you. But clearly, there's a bias there that they were not seeing. How did you respond to that?
Well, I agree with you. The way I read these kinds of overtures is: they are trying to be well-meaning; they're trying to engage me.
The thing that I wish they would do, or understand, is that I can talk about a lot of other things other than just race matters.
I've come to the professoriate in an unorthodox way. Before even going to graduate school, I had a career in the theater; I was a book editor at Dell Publishing Company; I was a college administrator. Then I jumped over to the faculty side. So I have a lot of life experiences that a permit me to have a pretty broad view on a lot of a lot of matters.
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But sometimes, I'm seen by others through this very narrow window of race. That's how they see me, and that just suggests the kind of limitations to their worldview. So, I don't scold them or correct them, I say, "Well, that's that's very nice. Yes, that's an important book. Good for you. Keep reading."
Do the discussions like the one we're having now help at all, given what a difficult year it's been; a difficult 400 years it's been?
These conversations are very important.
In fact, I think the time is right for all Americans to have these kinds of conversations. We need to come to some reckoning, right now, about American history. American history is really one of dispossession, and exclusion, dominance of whites over others, and we just need to have this honest conversation about that.
I think what's really required is open, honest conversation, like this one. Now I'm going to borrow a term from [Pulitzer Prize-winning author] Isabel Wilkerson: "radical empathy," where you don't sympathize with the other person, but you imagine yourself in the other person's shoes, imagine yourself in the other person's place, position, and experiencing the things that person has experienced.
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