Middlebury College is a Vermont college located in Middlebury, Vermont. Middlebury is about 70 miles Northwest of Dartmouth. It was founded in 1800 by Gamaliel Painter. Middlebury became the first operating college in Vermont and it is now educating over 2,500 undergraduates. Middlebury’s claim to fame is that they graduated the first African American: Alexander Twilight.
Alexander Twilight was accepted into Middlebury in 1821 but, since Middlebury had a policy against African Americans, he had to pretend he was a white man. We believe the reason he graduated was because they thought he was white. Years later, they claimed they graduated the first black man in America, even though they probably had no idea that he was African American at the time. Let us know how you feel about Middlebury’s claim in the comments. Alexander Twilight Girls
1 Comment
Jen
1/9/2019 01:41:04 pm
There's that revisionist turn around! When we have a new perspective, we want history to reflect the kind of thinking we have now that we wish we had had in the past. Middlebury is now taking credit for something that seems to have happened by accident and against their wishes/policies. I'm curious about what kinds of conversations have happened at Middlebury over the years related to this change in perspective!
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AuthorsGabrielle and Esme have been researching Twilight thoroughly for three years. They started off working on their Vermont History presentation and eventually ended up, more recently, presenting at Boston History Camp in Boston, Mass. Archives
December 2019
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