Background
Elihu Embree was the son of Thomas and Esther Embree, who removed from Pennsylvania about 1790 to Washington County in the territory that soon became the state of Tennessee.
( Elihu Embree and his family were Quakers who were commi...)
Elihu Embree and his family were Quakers who were committed to the cause of abolishing slavery in the American South. Over a few short years, he raised the public consciousness in East Tennessee and achieved wide recognition with the publication of The Emancipator, the first periodical in the United States devoted solely to the abolitionist cause. The seven issues of the monthly publication are reproduced here, together with a brief history of Elihu and the Embree family’s migration from France to Washington County, Tennessee.
https://www.amazon.com/Emancipator-Elihu-Embree/dp/0932807852?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0932807852
Elihu Embree was the son of Thomas and Esther Embree, who removed from Pennsylvania about 1790 to Washington County in the territory that soon became the state of Tennessee.
In eastern Tennessee, where he lived, as well as in neighboring communities of the southern Appalachian region, hostility to the institution of slavery was strong.
In 1885, under the leadership of Charles Osborn and John Rankin, the Manumission Society of Tennessee was organized.
A short time before this, Elihu Embree, who for some years had been a deist and a slaveowner, had embraced the Christian religion, freed his slaves, and joined the Society of Friends.
He became a member of this Manumission Society.
In March 1819 he began the publication at Jonesboro of the Manumission Intelligencer.
This weekly paper, a complete file of which seems not to be in existence, was probably the first periodical in the United States devoted wholly to the anti-slavery cause.
He called upon the enlightened master voluntarily to set free his slaves.
He memorialized the Tennessee legislature to abolish the institution of slavery, “a shame to any people. ”
He denounced those states that sought to exclude free negroes from within their boundaries.
Although the Emancipator died with its young and militant editor, Benjamin Lundy’s Genius of Universal Emancipation was in a sense its successor, and hostility to slavery continued in eastern Tennessee.
( Elihu Embree and his family were Quakers who were commi...)
Thomas Embree, a Quaker minister, had addressed the people of Tennessee as early as 1797 in advocacy of gradual Abolition (Knoxville Gazette, Jan. 23, 1797).
Manumission Society
He and his brother, Elijah, were among the earliest iron- manufacturers of this region, but unlike his brother, Elihu achieved no notable success in the business world. There was much of the idealist in him, and he became one of the early leaders of the anti-slavery movement. In eastern Tennessee, where he lived, as well as in neighboring communities of the southern Appalachian region, hostility to the institution of slavery was strong.
When Missouri sought admission into the Union as a slave-state, “Not another foot of slave territory, ” was his reply.
When Osborn and Rankin with other anti-slavery men left the slave-states, Embree regretted their going and the consequent “loss of so much virtue from these slave states, which held too little before. ”
He determined to carry on the work in Tennessee and he succeeded to their leadership.
Quotations:
When Osborn and Rankin with other anti-slavery men left the slave-states, Embree regretted their going and the consequent “loss of so much virtue from these slave states, which held too little before. ”
Embree took the position “that freedom is the inalienable right of all men. ” He replied to those who feared that racial equality would follow Abolition that he had “never been able to discover that the author of nature intended that one complexion of the human skin should stand higher in the scale of being, than another. ” In vigorous terms he condemned slavery and the slave-owner. He called upon the enlightened master voluntarily to set free his slaves. He memorialized the Tennessee legislature to abolish the institution of slavery, “a shame to any people. ”
When Missouri sought admission into the Union as a slave-state, “Not another foot of slave territory, ” was his reply.
n 18x5, under the leadership of Charles Osborn and John Rankin, the Manumission Society of Tennessee was organized. A short time before this, Elihu Embree, who for some years had been a deist and a slaveowner, had embraced the Christian religion, freed his slaves, and joined the Society of Friends. He became a member of this Manumission Society.
There was much of the idealist in him, and he became one of the early leaders of the anti-slavery movement.