Its Only a Matter of Time Before These People Are Our Slaves Again
James Birney
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James Birney was an abolitionist, an opponent of slavery, in the years before the American Civil War.
Birney was born on February 4, 1792, in Danville, Kentucky. His parents were wealthy slave owners, merely similar a number of other slaveholders in the Upper South, they believed that information technology was only a matter of time before slavery would end. Some of these people were morally opposed to slavery, believing that information technology was un-Christian and un-American to own some other person. Other slave owners believed that slave labor was becoming too expensive. Birney shared his parents' views. He attended several schools, including Transylvania College and the Priestly Seminary at Danville. Birney graduated from Princeton Academy in 1810, and he began to study for a legal career in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1814, he opened a law practice in Danville.
Birney became a slave owner in 1816, when he married and received the slaves as a wedding gift. In 1818, Birney moved his family to a plantation near Huntsville, Alabama. He became involved in politics and served every bit a fellow member of Alabama's constitutional convention. He also became a member of the Alabama legislature. His political career suffered when he became an outspoken opponent of Andrew Jackson and called for his fellow slave owners to support the gradual end of slavery.
In 1833, Birney moved his family back to his ancestral dwelling in Kentucky. Birney was rarely at home, as he lectured across the South, calling for the gradual end to slavery and the colonization of the erstwhile slaves in Africa. He realized that gradual emancipation was non a practical way to end slavery. He began to endorse the immediate end of slavery and freed his own slaves in June 1834. At the same time, he besides began to publish an anti-slavery paper in Danville. Residents favoring slavery threatened Birney's publisher. The publisher fled the community, and no other publishers were willing to assist him.
Birney moved his family to Cincinnati, Ohio, in October 1835. On January 1, 1836, Birney began publication of a new paper, The Philanthropist, which chosen for the immediate stop to slavery and equal rights for African Americans with whites. The paper was printed for several months of 1936 in New Richmond, Ohio, but the printing operation eventually returned to Cincinnati. Many Cincinnatians opposed Birney'south views. Some of these people were erstwhile slave owners and believed that African Americans were inferior to whites. Other people opposed slavery merely believed African Americans would movement to the North and deprive white people of jobs. On January 22, 1836, a group of white Cincinnatians urged the city government to prohibit Birney from publishing his paper. Birney was undaunted. To forbid Birney from press, a mob of white Cincinnatians destroyed the newspaper'due south printing press on July 12, 1836. Undeterred, Birney remained in Cincinnati and connected to publish his newspaper. The mob returned on July xxx, 1836, and destroyed the press press again. Birney resumed publication of The Philanthropist in September 1836, and he continued to publish it in Cincinnati, until Oct of 1843.
As well publication of his newspaper, Birney assisted the abolitionist motility in many other ways. In September 1837, he moved with his family to New York, where he became the secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Gild. He likewise served as the Liberty Party's candidate for president in both 1840 and 1844. He was the merely human being to run for the presidency under that party's imprint. In 1844, Birney received approximately 62,000 votes out of more than than 2.v 1000000 votes bandage. The small vote total for the Liberty Party'south candidate showed how small the abolitionist move was in the N during this menstruation. Birney's candidacy, nonetheless, may have won the election for Democrat James Thou. Polk and lost the election for Henry Clay of the Whig Party. Abolitionists tended to favor the Whigs. If the Liberty Political party had non run a candidate, some of the 62,000 people who voted for Birney may have voted for Dirt. Clay lost the election by fewer than 38,000 votes.
In between his 2 presidential campaigns, Birney moved to Bay Urban center, Michigan. Birney was one of the earliest settlers of Bay City. He engaged in farming. In 1855, Birney moved to the Due east Coast, where he died on November 25, 1857. He remained a champion of abolition until his death.
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References
- Fess, Simeon D., ed. Ohio: A Four-Book Reference Library on the History of a Great Country. Chicago, IL: Lewis Publishing Company, 1937
- Fladeland, Betty. James Gillespie Birney: Slaveholder to Abolitionist. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1955.
Source: https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/James_Birney
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