A Biography of Oliver Johnson: Abolitionist and Reformer, 1809-1889 (Studies in American History)
(The abolitionist movement in America before the Civil War...)
The abolitionist movement in America before the Civil War was as intensely idealistic as it was supremely successful. Slavery ended, albeit in the fires of war. Dr. Raffo's fine study of Oliver Johnson brings the life of this intriguing and admirable man to our attention. Raffo's work is solidly grounded in the relevant archival sources, as well as the abundant literature on abolitionism of the last half century. The abolitionist movement in America before the Civil War was as intensely idealistic as it was supremely successful. Slavery ended, albeit in the fires of war. Abolitionism had roots in the British antislavery movement in the latter part of the Eighteenth century and ultimately it grew out of simple human disgust at the horrors of slavery itself. And yet the story of abolitionism is a unique American drama. In one sense it was delayed. Where were those feelings of empathy for enslaved African Americans in the first 200 years of the institution? But when at least in the 1830s northern intellectuals, preachers, and concerned citizens came together with a unified voice against slavery, the effect was electric. We would never again as a people be quite the same. One important early, continuing, and consistent figure in the long struggle to end slavery was Oliver Johnson. Born in 1809, Johnson joined political passion and Quaker beliefs. He worked tirelessly as an aide and follower of William Lloyd Garrison. He wrote and edited for The Liberator. He struggled through the byzantine squabbles in the movement. He raised money for the cause and helped good candidates run for office where it was feasible. He also never lost sight of his goal-to end the abominable institution of slavery in America. Steven Raffo's fine study of Oliver Johnson brings the life of this intriguing and admirable man to our attention. Raffo's work is solidly grounded in the relevant archival sources, as well as the abundant literature on abolitionism of the last half century. This book is an engaging story. It is that of a man and a time long past but worth remembering. If there is a moral, it is that good people can do good things to overcome evil.
William Lloyd Garrison and His Times: Or, Sketches of the Anti-Slavery Movement in America, and of the Man Who Was Its Founder and Moral Leader (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from William Lloyd Garrison and His Times: Or, Sk...)
Excerpt from William Lloyd Garrison and His Times: Or, Sketches of the Anti-Slavery Movement in America, and of the Man Who Was Its Founder and Moral Leader
O, my brethren! I have told Most bitter truth, but w1thout bitterness. Coleridge.
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Oliver Johnson was an American abolitionist, reformer, antislavery leader and editor. For most of his life, he worked in different newspapers, including The Liberator, The New York Tribune, and The Antislavery Bugle.
Background
Johnson was born on December 27, 1809, in Peacham, Vermont, the son of Ziba Johnson, a Peacham pioneer in 1795, and Sally Lincoln. He was related on his mother's side to the Lincolns and Leonards of Massachusetts, and on his father's was descended from Isaac Johnson, who came to America in the late seventeenth century.
Education
Oliver grew up on a farm and attended the common school until he became an apprentice in the printing office of the Vermont Watchman, Montpelier. Here he came under the influence of William Lloyd Garrison, whose paper, Journal of the Times (Bennington), he eagerly devoured.
Career
Going to Boston in 1831, Johnson established the Christian Soldier, in opposition to the doctrine of Universalism. His office was in the same building with that of the Liberator and there soon sprang up between Johnson and Garrison an intimacy and an agreement on all phases of the slavery question which lasted throughout their lives. When in 1833 and 1840 Garrison went to England, he intrusted the editing of the Liberator in his absence to Johnson, and during the summers of 1837 and 1838 Garrison, because of ill health, turned his paper over to Johnson's care.
In 1832 Johnson became one of the twelve founders of the New England Antislavery Society and in 1836, its traveling agent. From this time forward he continuously engaged in the work of the antislavery crusade, lecturing under the auspices of several of the numerous antislavery societies, writing, and editing. He was Boston correspondent of the New York Tribune, 1842-1844, and assistant to Horace Greeley, 1844-1848. In 1849 he became editor of the Antislavery Bugle (Salem, Massachusetts), somewhat later of the Pennsylvania Freeman, from which in 1853 the National Antislavery Society transferred him to the associate editorship of the National Antislavery Standard at New York. This post he held until the end of the Civil War. He was also connected with the Republican (Philadelphia), a Free-Soil paper, and the Practical Christian (Milford, Massachusetts).
After the Civil War he was associate editor of the Independent, 1865-1870; editor of the New York Weekly Tribune, 1870-1873; managing editor of the Christian Union, 1873-1876; editor of the Journal (Orange, New Jersey); and associate editor of the New York Evening Post (1881-1889). He died in Brooklyn, New York, on December 10, 1889. Because of his affiliation with "Progressive Friends", he was buried at Kennett Square.
In maturity Johnson abandoned the Calvinism of his youth and became identified with a small group known as "Progressive Friends, " whose center was at Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.
Politics
As a reformer Johnson was interested not only in abolition but in nearly all the progressive movements of his day. As early as 1838 his interest in women's rights was shown when he advocated full participation of women in antislavery societies.
In politics he followed much the same course as Garrison until, in the election of 1872, he became an active worker in the reform campaign of Horace Greeley. He was a close friend of Henry Ward Beecher and of Theodore Tilton.
Membership
Johnson was temporary secretary of the Peace Convention of 1838 at Boston and showed a consistent interest in the peace movement throughout his life.
Connections
On September 8, 1832, Johnson married Mary Anne White, daughter of Rev. Broughton White of Putney, Vermont. She was assistant matron of the female prison at Sing Sing, a promoter of prison reform, and later a lecturer on anatomy and physiology to women. His wife died in June 1872, and on August 27, 1873, he married Jane Abbott, daughter of John S. C. Abbott, by whom he had one daughter.