Daniel Hand: A Local and American Hero
by Dr. Donald Rankin Most residents of Madison are aware that, in 1884, Daniel Hand (1801-1891) 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 $1,500,000 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?
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.
In 1822 Hand embarked upon a series of varied wholesale and retail business ventures, first with an older
brother, Augustus Hand, and later with Erastus C. Scranton, another Madison transplant. His final business
partner and friend, George Williams, undoubtedly proved to be his wisest choice. By the time of the Civil War,
the annual sales from the Hand-Williams partnership amounted to $2 million. More importantly, the onset of
America's "War between the States" impacted Hand, then sixty years old, in a most remarkable fashion.
Although their partnership was in jeopardy because Hand's anti-slavery, pro-Union position chafed against
the beliefs of Williams, an avowed Confederate, Hand trusted the integrity of his partner. He turned over all
his business interests to Williams, aiming to return to New England to protect his personal safety. En route to
the north, Hand was imprisoned in Richmond, Virginia, for a month until the authorities determined he was not a
threat to the Confederacy. Remaining in the south until the end of the war, Hand found a safe harbor 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 dollars -- approximately $35 to $42 million in today's dollars.
Trusting thoroughly in his belief that education for southern blacks 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.