Oval portrait dated September 1840. Oil on ivory, mounted on paper.
Daniel Hand
(1801-1891)
Most residents of Madison are aware that, in 1884, Daniel Hand generously provided funds--$15,110 to be precise-- for the construction of Hand Academy, the seminal foundation for the present-day Daniel Hand High School.
Not as many current Madison citizens, however, are aware that, by the end of his life, Hand had established a trust fund valued at $1.5 million with the American Missionary Society for the purpose of educating black Americans in the seven southern states that had formerly permitted the enslavement of African people and their descendants. Hand’s trust fund was, at the time, the largest philanthropic gift to a benevolent association in the history of the nation. How did this extraordinary gift come about?
Growing up in Madison
Born in 1801 in a house built in 1739 by his grandfather, Captain Daniel Hand, Daniel Hand attended Madison’s Woods District School and also received supplemental schooling at home. At age 17, Daniel decided against higher education and instead headed south to Augusta, Georgia, to work as a clerk in the grocery store owned by his uncle Daniel Meigs.
Partnership with George Williams
Italianate house of Daniel Hand, at 47 Fair Street in Guilford, CT. Built in 1878-1879 by the builders George W. Seward and Sons. Photo courtesy of Historic Buildings of Connecticut.
In 1818 Daniel joined his brother Augustus in Augusta, Georgia, where they worked with their uncle, Daniel Meigs, in a wholesale grocery business. After the death of his uncle and brother, Daniel became the store's sole proprietor at the age of 22. He later worked with Erastus Clark Scranton, another Madison transplant. His final business partner, George Williams, only 17 years old at the time they met, undoubtedly proved to be his wisest choice.
Over time, Hand’s outspoken moral opposition to slavery made his life in the South increasingly difficult. His concerns over the growing secessionist movement prompted
his return North. By 1854 he had established himself as an agent in New York, and, in 1859, he turned over his business interests to Williams to manage.
Hand spent time in the infamous Libby prison, later known as Rat Hell, before being released on condition of secluding himself in the South for the duration of the war. He chose to stay in Asheville, North Carolina, where he resided until 1865.
After the war, Hand returned to Connecticut, where he lived in Guilford until his death in 1891. In the intervening years, Hand’s partner George Williams managed their business interests in an astonishingly successful manner. When Williams traveled to Guilford in 1881 to visit Hand, then 80, he revealed the value of the securities he held on Hand’s behalf. Hand was incredulous to learn that his share was valued at $1.5 to $2 million--approximately $35 to $42 million in today's dollars.
Establishing a Fund for the Education of Southern Black Americans
Selection of books from the Daniel Hand library
Trusting thoroughly in his belief that education for southern black Americans was necessary to strengthen the nation following the Civil War, Hand used his profits to establish a fund dedicated to the education of formerly enslaved people and free blacks throughout the South. Thousands of students have benefited since from Hand’s immense generosity--and so indeed has our country.
A man of industry, integrity, and moral courage, Daniel Hand is a role model for us all.
In addition to the portrait above, depicting the philanthropist as a young man, the Madison Historical Society owns Hand’s original library of books, his wooden travel trunk, and the saber carried in the Revolutionary War by his grandfather, Captain Daniel Hand (1732-1816). For these and other images related to Daniel Hand, visit the Society’s Flickr page.
The Madison Historical Society thanks the late Dr. Donald Rankin for his original research for this article.