Bec-Bet: Beckley through Bethune

See below for annotated biographies of American abolitionists and anti-slavery activists. Source: Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography.


BECKLEY, Guy, Northfield, Vermont.  Anti-slavery agent.  Lectured in New Hampshire and Michigan.  Co-edited antislavery newspaper, Signal of Liberty, with Theodore Foster, the newspaper of the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society. (Dumond, 1961, p. 187)


BEECHER, Charles, 1815-1900, clergyman, anti-slavery activist, author.  Son of abolitionist Lyman Beecher, brother of author Harriet Beecher Stowe, who was the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Edward Beecher, and Henry Ward Beecher.  (Appletons, 1888, Vol. 1, p. 220; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 126-127; Dumond, 1961, pp. 273, 310; Mabee, 1970, pp. 298)

BEECHER, CHARLES (October 7, 1815-April21, 1900), Congregational clergyman, was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, the last of the nine children of Lyman Beecher by his first wife, Roxana Foote. Almost forty years later he prefaced his Redeemer and Redeemed with the words: "To her who gave me birth; consecrated me to the ministry; died before I knew her; whom, next to my Redeemer, I most desire to meet in the Resurrection, to Roxana Beecher, I dedicate this work, for the execution of which I am chiefly glad to have lived; in the hope that she will not, on account of it, be sorry for having borne me." For some years it seemed as if the mother's hope for her last-born would not be fulfilled, for after being prepared for college at the Boston Latin School, and Lawrence Academy, Groton, Massachusetts, graduating from Bowdoin College (1834), and studying theology under his father at Lane Seminary, he lost practically all faith in the Christian doctrines in which he had been schooled. He taught music, for which he had much aptitude, in Cincinnati, and later was a shipping clerk in New Orleans. Settling in Indianapolis while his brother, Henry Ward, was pastor there, he took charge of the music in the latter's church, and finally, November 9, 1844, having become more settled in his views, he was ordained pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, Fort Wayne, Ind. Two sermons preached there he published in 1846 under the title, The Bible a Sufficient Creed. On July 23, 1840, he had been married to Sarah, daughter of Nathaniel and Mary (Porter) Coffin of Jacksonville, Illinois.

His career was a varied one. In 1851 he became pastor of the Free Presbyterian, later the First Congregational Church, Newark, New Jersey, where his anti-slavery views separated him and his church from the fellowship of the other churches of the city. Here he published in 1851 The Duty of Disobedience to Wicked Laws, a Sermon on the Fugitive Slave Law. For a short time he was professor of rhetoric in Knox College, Illinois. From November 19, 1857, to May 4, 1881, he was pastor of the First Congregational Church, Georgetown, Massachusetts. In 1863 he was convicted of heresy by the Essex North Conference because of his belief in the preexistence of souls, but his church sustained its pastor, and later the Conference rescinded its action. In 1864 he represented the town in the Massachusetts legislature. He made his home in Florida from 1870 to 1877, and was superintendent of public instruction in that state (1871-73). From 1885 to 1893 he was acting pastor of the church in Wysox, Pennsylvania, and he spent his closing years in Georgetown, Massachusetts.

He was a man of wide learning and of musical as well as literary ability. In 1851 he published in collaboration with John Zundel, organist of his brother Henry's church in Brooklyn, The Metronome or Music Teacher's Assistant, a New Manual of Sacred Song. He also wrote several hymns, and selected the music for the Plymouth Collection (1855). In 1849 he published The Incarnation, or: Pictures of the Virgin and Her Son, which portrays Gospel narratives in the aspects which they present to an imaginative mind, with the appliances of geographical, historical, and critical knowledge. He wrote two books on spiritualism, A Review of the "Spiritual Manifestations" (1853), and Spiritual Manifestations (1879), in which he states his view of the spirit world, and expounds a kind of "Christian spiritualism." Based in part on ingenious and sometimes fantastic symbolic interpretations of portions of the Bible, he evolved a theology, or cosmology, which is presented in the last mentioned work and in Redeemer and Redeemed (1864), The Eden Tableau ( 1880), and Patmos, or the Unveiling (1896). He also edited the Autobiography, Correspondence, etc., of Lyman Beecher, D.D. (1864).

[Congregation Yr. Bk., 1901; Obit. Record Grads. Bowdoin College (1911); Outlook, LXIV, 943.]

H.E.S.


BEECHER, Edward, 1803-1895, clergyman, abolitionist leader, writer, social reformer.  President, Illinois College, Jacksonville, Illinois.  Pastor, Salem Street Church, Boston.  Executive committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.  Friend of abolitionist leader Elijah J. Lovejoy.  Co-founded Anti-Slavery Society in Illinois.  Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1842.  Son of abolitionist Lyman Beecher, brother of author Harriet Beecher Stowe, who was the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Charles Beecher, and Henry Ward Beecher.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 153-154, 288; Merideth, 1968; Pease, 1965, pp. 268-272; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 40, 187-188; Rugoff, 1981; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 219-220; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, p. 128)

BEECHER, EDWARD (August 27, 1803-July 28, 1895), Congregational clergyman, college president, the third child of Reverend Lyman and Roxana (Foote) Beecher, was born at East Hampton, Long Island. He was the brother of Catharine Beecher [q.v.], Henry Ward Beecher [q.v.], and Harriet Beecher Stowe [q.v.]. After graduating from Yale in the class of 1822, teaching at Hartford, Connecticut, for a year, studying for a short time at Andover Seminary and tutoring at Yale for another year, he became in 1826 pastor of the Park Street Church, Boston. Four years later, on the recommendation of President Day of Yale, he became the first president of Illinois College at Jacksonville. (See Theron Baldwin, and J.M. Sturtevant.) That he should have been willing to give up the pastorate of a prominent church on Boston Common to become president of a college that could boast only one small brick building, located on the outskirts of a little log-cabin village on the western prairies, showed that he had in him the qualities of a true pioneer missionary. He served as president of Illinois College for nearly fourteen years, gathering about him a faculty of able young men who in time won real distinction for this western college. A new and commodious dormitory for students and faculty was added to the college plant in less than two years after he came to his post. He was frequently in the East trying to raise additional funds for the enterprise and met with a measure of success, but the panic of 1837 gave the college a financial blow from which it never recovered during his administration. It was hardly to be expected that a member of the Beecher family could remain passive when the clouds of the slavery controversy cast their shadow over the community. A large majority of the settlers in that part of the state were from the South and the president, realizing that the fortunes of the college might be seriously jeopardized by radical utterances, hesitated at first to take a determined stand, but when, as he himself remarked, the principles of free speech and a free press became involved in the issue, he could remain "silent no longer." He fearlessly stood by Elijah P. Lovejoy, helping him to guard his press in the warehouse at Alton the night before Lovejoy was shot. He took an active part in helping to organize the first state anti-slavery society of Illinois. Some of his students were indicted by a local grand jury for harboring runaway slaves, and personal violence was threatened against some of his colleagues on the faculty. Religious controversies also disturbed the peace of the campus, but Beecher and his colleagues courageously stood their ground against local bigotry. In 1842, when college finances were at a low ebb, he again went East to see if he could retrieve the failing fortunes of the institution. Begging for money, however, was a task which he did not enjoy, for he was primarily a preacher and a scholar. He never returned to his post as president, resigning in 1844 to accept the pastorate of the Salem Street Church in Boston. He became one of the founders of the Congregationalist and served as its editor-in-chief from 1849 to 1853. In 1855, he returned to the West as first pastor of the First Congregational Church of Galesburg, Illinois, where he served until 1871, when he removed to Brooklyn, apparently to be with his distinguished brother. He remained henceforth without any regular pastoral charge except for a few years when he served a small Congregational church at Parkville, near Brooklyn. He died at the ripe age of nearly ninety-two years. His wife, Isabella P. Jones of Wiscasset, Maine, who had borne him eleven children, survived him a few months. He was a somewhat prolific writer on theological subjects, among his more important books being: Baptism, Imports and Modes (1841); The Conflict of Ages (1853); The Papal Conspiracy Exposed (1855); The Concord of Ages (1860). He also wrote a Narrative of the Alton Riots-an important contemporary account of that episode in the slavery controversy.

[Material on Edward Beecher is scant. See his Alton Riots (1838); Bateman and Selby's Historical Encyclopedia Illinois ( 1906); Congregation Yr. Bk. for 1896; J. M. Sturtevant, Autobiography ( 1896); Summary of the Record of the Class of 1822, Yale College, to the Close of 1879 (1879); Record of the Meetings of the Class of 1822, Yale College, etc. (1869).]

C. H. R.


BEECHER, Reverend Henry Ward, 1813-1887, social reformer, clergyman, abolitionist leader.  Supported women’s suffrage and temperance movements.  Opposed compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act.  Supported early Republican Party and its candidate for President, John C. Fremont.  Son of abolitionist Lyman Beecher, brother of author Harriet Beecher Stowe, who was the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Charles Beecher, and Edward Beecher.  (Applegate, 2006; Filler, 1960, pp. 155, 196, 241; Hibben, 1942; Mabee, 1970, pp. 140, 240, 241, 298, 300, 318, 320, 337, 365; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 380, 656-657; Rugoff, 1981; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 218-219; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 128-135; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 64-66)

BEECHER, HENRY WARD (June 24, 1813- March 8, 1887), clergyman, one of the most conspicuous figures in the public life of his time, was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, and lived there until he was thirteen years old. Outdoor life in this New England hill town, where, he once said, "it almost required medical help to get sick," developed the physical robustness he inherited through his father, and the love of nature and appreciation of beauty which he derived from his mother. The Beecher line, English with a slight admixture of Scotch and Welsh, went back to the company of Puritans who came over to Boston with John Davenport in 1637, and the next year founded New Haven. It was a succession of hardy Connecticut farmers and blacksmiths, noted for their Samson-like feats of strength. They were much given to marrying; Henry's grandfather had five wives and twelve children, and his father Lyman [q.v.], three wives and thirteen children. The latter, pastor of the church in Litchfield, was one of the leaders of New England Congregationalism, a man of keen mind, quick wit, and fertile imagination, but averse to hard study. Revivals and doctrinal combat afforded him his keenest delights. He was restless, impulsive, and of unstable nervous organization, bursting into tears at the slightest provocation. Preaching excited him to a high degree, and a thunderstorm stirred him almost to frenzy. Moods of hilarious cheerfulness took possession of him, in which he was capable of horseplay and rather crude practical jokes. He was erratic, disorderly in his habits, and a careless spender. On the other hand, Henry's mother, Roxana Foote, was a shy, sensitive, self-abnegating woman, who loved flowers and all beautiful things, sang, played the guitar, did fine embroidery, and painted on ivory. With all her artistic temperament, however, she had far more poise and sound judgment than her husband. Her ancestry went back to Nathaniel Foote, one of the original settlers of Wethersfield, Connecticut, and still farther, to James Foote, a cavalier who, according to tradition, helped King Charles II conceal himself in the royal oak. Her father and mother, Eli and Roxana (Ward) Foote, were Episcopalians and Loyalists. After bearing Lyman Beecher nine children she died of consumption when Henry was about three years old. Not long after her death, her place was taken by Harriet Porter, a beautiful, aristocratic person of elegant manners and exquisite sense of rectitude and propriety, who awakened in the Beecher children awe rather than warm affection.

For a boy of Henry Ward's nature and needs, life in the Litchfield parsonage was both favorable and unfavorable. There was an atmosphere of intellectual virility there, but an unwholesome amount of theological discussion, and as he became older he had agonizing periods of concern over the unsaved condition of his soul. A spirit of cheerfulness and even hilarity pervaded the household, however. Lyman Beecher romped with the children and went fishing with them. Strict discipline was enforced and independence and resourcefulness were developed. "I was brought up to put my hand to anything," Henry once declared, and boasted that he could go into an abandoned blacksmith's shop, start a fire and put a shoe on his horse. He also learned to knit mittens and suspenders, an accomplishment for which he professed to be thankful. Nevertheless the Beecher household was too busy and crowded for a younger child to receive much personal attention and affection, and Henry needed both. In spite of the fact that he was robust, fun-loving, and full of animal spirits, he was a shy, backward lad, so thick of-speech that he could hardly be understood. Undreamed of emotional possibilities were stored up within him. In the fields and woods where he loved to be by himself, these were stirred, but not at home. Unquestionably, as a youth, he was lonely, self-centered, and suppressed.

It was his "misfortune," he said in after years, "to go to a district school." "I have not a single pleasant recollection of my schoolboy days." Diffidence and a defect in verbal memory, which he never overcame, caused him to be regarded as unusually stupid. So backward was he that when he was ten years old, his father sent him to a school in Bethlehem, Connecticut, conducted by a Reverend Mr. Langdon. Here he was home-sick and studied little, spending as much time as he could in the woods. He was next sent to the school which his sister Catharine was teaching in Hartford, where he was the only boy among some forty girls. When in 1826 Lyman Beecher became pastor of Hanover Church, Boston, Henry was at the age of inner turbulence and longing for romantic adventure. He wanted to go to sea. His shrewd old father told him that if he was to follow the sea he ought to learn navigation. Henry swallowed the bait and was landed in the Mount Pleasant Classical Institute, Amherst, Massachusetts. Here for the first time he had the advantage of contact with boys of varying types from different parts of the country. He became popular with them and a leader in their sports. William P. N. Fitzgerald, an ex-cadet at West Point, instructor in mathematics, taught him how to study; and John E. Lovell, with persistent, interested cooperation on Beecher's part, made something of an orator out of him. Here, too, for the first time, his fervid emotional nature had some, expression and human response, partly through his practise in declamation, but more particularly through one or two intimate friendships.

In 1830 he entered Amherst College, graduating four years later. He stood low in his classes, for he had his father's averseness to hard study, and was never disposed to subject himself to a fixed regime; As his moods dictated, however, he read widely in the English classics. He also acquired a considerable knowledge of phrenology, which he always felt was a great help to him in appraising men's powers and tendencies. In public speaking he attracted some attention, and he made frequent contributions to the Shrine, one of the college papers. During the long winter vacations he taught school, and on occasions lectured or preached. He was a lusty youth, active in such athletics as were then common, popular with his fellows, noted for his skill in storytelling and mimicry, his quickness in repartee, his hilarity, and practical jokes.

Thus far young Beecher had had no satisfying religious experience. During a revival at Mount Pleasant Academy he had gone through a brief period of religious excitation which he hoped was conversion, and his father had hustled him into the church. He had no firm ground to stand upon, however, and in college suffered much from uncertainty and doubt. He knew that his mother on her death-bed had dedicated him to the ministry, and that his father expected all his sons to become preachers. Upon graduating from college, therefore, following the course of least resistance possibly, he entered Lane Theological Seminary, Cincinnati, of which his father had become the head. Here his exuberant vitality and his interest in what was going on about him, led him to give as much time to extra curriculum activities as to his studies. He continued his general reading, lectured, preached, wrote articles for the Daily Evening Post of Cincinnati, and for a few months, acted as editor of the Cincinnati Journal, a Presbyterian weekly. During the excitement which followed the destruction of James G. Birney's printing office by a pro-slavery mob, he was sworn in as special constable. His doubts about entering the ministry continued. For systematic theology he had no appetite then or thereafter, and scant intellectual capacity for dealing with its problems. Calvinism, which had overshadowed him from infancy, with its emphasis upon the sovereignty of God, its rigidity and sternness, was repellent to a nature like his, rebellious to all restraint, extraordinarily sensitive to the beauty and joyousness of life, and craving love and companionship. He was determined to preach the Gospel, if at all, as it was revealed to him and not as it was taught in the schools. Religious certitude finally came to him through an ecstatic personal experience. One beautiful May morning in the Ohio woods there entered his soul an intoxicating sense of God as one who loves "a man in his sins for the sake of helping him out of them," not "out of compliment to Christ, or to a law, or to a plan of salvation, but from the fulness of His great heart"; and of Christ as one whose nature it is to lift man "out of everything that is low and debasing to superiority." Later there came a realization of Christ as ever near him, a companion and friend to uphold and sustain him. Here was a conception opening up possibilities of a highly emotional religious life, and a field for preaching exactly suited to Beecher's temperament and gifts.

After this May morning experience he had no more doubts as to his life work. In 1837 he was licensed to preach by the Cincinnati Presbytery, and accepted a call to a church of twenty members in Lawrenceburg, Ind. He went back East in the summer of that year and, on August 3, married Eunice White Bullard of West Sutton, Massachusetts, to whom he had become engaged while he was a student at Amherst. The young couple had no capital and began housekeeping in two rooms over a warehouse, the scanty furnishings being provided through the sale of some of their personal belongings, and gifts from their parishioners. The salary was meager and Beecher was not too proud to wear the cast-off clothing of others. It did not always fit, but he was never particular about his personal appearance. A child was soon born to them, the first of ten. Beecher applied for ordination to the Miami Presbytery, a decidedly Old School body, the Scotch-Irish members of which suspected his orthodoxy because he was Lyman Beecher's son. With more cleverness than candor apparently, he answered their questions satisfactorily. A resolution was passed, however, to the effect that the Presbytery would ordain only those who would give adhesion to the Old School Presbyterian General Assembly. With this condition Beecher refused to comply, and he returned to Lawrenceburg unordained. His church supported him and became an independent Presbyterian body. Later, November 9, 1838, he was ordained by the New School Presbytery of Cincinnati. Beecher remained in Lawrenceburg until July 1839, when he became pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis, a New School congregation which had withdrawn from the First Church. Here he remained eight years.

During the first decade of his ministry, Beecher was feeling his way, getting command of himself and learning how to use his endowment. He began his career with a considerable fund of varied information derived from wide reading; a passionate fondness for outdoor life; a liking for people whatever their station which sometimes made him dangerously careless in his choice of associates; an ambition to be an effective preacher; and beneath all, a powerful and sincere moral earnestness. He was disposed to be a law unto himself, not only theologically, but in all things. In a lesser degree he had his father's emotional instability, and the latter's zest for action, disorderly habits, strain of coarseness, and financial ineptitude. Neither in the pulpit nor out of it did he pay much attention to the conventionalities. There was little in his dress or his demeanor to suggest his profession. He went hunting and fishing, romped with the young, played copenhagen at Sunday-school picnics, painted his house, pushed a wheelbarrow through the streets, went to fires and held the hose, with the same indifference to appearances with which in after years he would walk the streets of New York munching peanuts, and leaving a trail of shucks behind him. His high spirits, genial disposition, interest in all aspects of human life, and his freedom from any ostentatious piety made him popular generally. For a long time his preaching did not satisfy him. Finally through a study of Jonathan Edwards and the methods employed by the apostles as revealed in the book of Acts, he grasped the idea that the secret of successful preaching lies in its singleness of aim-that of effecting a moral change in the hearers; and that a sermon is good only as it has power on the heart. Upon this principle, therefore, he shaped all his preaching. People flocked to hear him; he assisted in revival services about the state; and with increasing frequency was called to give lectures and addresses for special occasions.

He also began that association with periodicals through which his influence was to have a reach which the pulpit alone could never have afforded. The Indiana Journal introduced into its columns an agricultural department, the contents of which were published every month in magazine form under the title, Indiana Farmer and Gardener, later changed to Western Farmer and Gardener, and of this Beecher was made the editor. His knowledge of agriculture was not extensive, although he was an enthusiastic experimental gardener; but with the remarkable capacity for assimilating and putting to practical use the results of other people's labors, which was a life-long characteristic, he perused Loudon's encyclopedias of horticulture and agriculture, together with works on botany, and wrote for the Farmer, according to an associate, "all the articles in it that were good for anything." Many of them were later published under the title Plain and Pleasant Talk About Fruits, Flowers and Farming (1859). They are written in a direct, pithy style, with touches of humor and imagination, contain a goodly amount of worldly wisdom, and besides imparting agricultural information, advocate cleanliness, temperance, better public schools, more education for farmers, and attention to beauty as well as to utility.

A Beecher could hardly help being a reformer. Henry Ward's early efforts to improve socia1 conditions were directed chiefly against the vices which commonly exist in a frontier community. While in Indianapolis he delivered a series of addresses which included such subjects as "Industry and Idleness," "Twelve Causes of Dishonesty," "Gamblers and Gambling," "The Strange Woman," "Popular Amusements." They attracted much attention at the time, and, published in 1844 under the title Seven Lectures to Young Men, were widely read in this country and abroad. They are remarkable for their shrewd analysis of human motives, their graphic descriptions, and picturesqueness of language, their realism, and their trenchant style. He was criticized at the time, and has been condemned since, for seeming to side-step the slavery question in a community where abolitionists were not popular. His comparative silence on this subject could not have been due to lack of courage, for Beecher always displayed a boldness, not to say rashness, in doing what he wanted to do. The Beechers were all opposed to slavery, but Henry shared his father's antipathy to the extreme abolitionists, "he-goat men," the latter called them, "who think they do God service by butting everything in their line of march which does not fall in or get out of their way." Not only did he distrust their methods, but their anger, malice, and evil-speaking were foreign to his genial, kindly disposition. The probability is that he was unwilling to do anything which might interfere with the main purpose of his life-preaching the Gospel with power to all sorts and conditions of men. Running through his intensely emotional nature, there was a strain of hard, practical common sense, exhibited in the advice he gave to his brother Charles: "Preach little doctrine, except what is of mouldy orthodoxy, keep all your improved breeds, your short-horned Durhams, your Berkshires, etc., way off to pasture. They will get fatter, and nobody will be scared .... I do not ask you to change yourself; but, for a time, while captious critics are lurking, adapt your mode so as to insure that you shall be rightly understood." In line with this advice, with respect to slavery, in his early days he permitted himself to be governed by expediency rather than by a heroism of questionable wisdom. In his later years he affirmed that he had often touched upon this subject indirectly, but it was not until his Presbytery recommended that all Presbyterians preach upon it at least once annually that he made it the theme of a sermon.

By 1847 Beecher's fame had gone abroad. That year he received calls to the Park Street Church, Boston, and to the Old South Church of the same city. These he declined. He liked the West, and wanted to stay there; but his wife did not, and her health was poor. Accordingly when invited to take charge of the newly organized Plymouth Church of Brooklyn, Congregational in polity, he accepted. Here, October 10, 1847, he began a public career which for conspicuousness and influence has probably not been, equaled by that of any other American clergyman. People came to hear him in increasing numbers. His unconventionality, his audacity, wit and humor, his theological latitude, his dramatic ability and picturesqueness of language, his friendly intimacy and naturalness, fascinated them. At first they came out of curiosity, but they kept coming, and from other motives. His sympathetic understanding of the human heart, and his appreciation and varied application of fundamental spiritual truths met their religious needs. In January 1849 the church building which the society had acquired burned, and a larger one, with a semi-circular auditorium, especially designed to give the audience opportunity to see and hear Beecher, and Beecher freedom to exercise his powers, was erected. Thereafter his weekly congregation averaged about 2,500 persons. Visitors to New York from all over the country and from abroad made it a point to hear him. His sermons, taken down stenographically, for they were never written out, were printed each week in pamphlet form and widely circulated. Entering the lecture field, he was soon one of the most popular of public speakers. He early became a regular contributor to the Independent, and his connection with it did much to make it widely read. From 1861 to 1864 he was editor, and from 1870 to 1881, editor of the Christian Union. For these papers he wrote some of the "strongest editorials in the American press'' (Cambridge History of American Literature, 1921, III, 325). He was also for a time a contributor to the New York Ledger. The effect of his personality and gifts was extraordinary. "He has had the misfortune of a popularity which is perfectly phenomenal," his sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, wrote to George Eliot. ... "I remember being in his house one evening in the time of early flowers, and in that one evening came a box of flowers from Maine, another from New Jersey, another from Connecticut-all from people with whom he had no personal acquaintance, who had read something of his and wanted to send him some token" (Charles E. Stowe, Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1889, p. 478).

From the beginning he used his pulpit, or platform, for he would have no pulpit in his church, for the discussion of public questions and the advocacy of reforms. His pronouncements therefrom and through the press made him a recognized leader of the anti-slavery forces. While not always consistent or well advised, on the whole his views and policies stand the test of time. He believed that slavery is fundamentally wrong, but held that under the Constitution there could be no interference with it in the slave states. He insisted, however, that it should be rigidly confined therein, and thus circumscribed, he felt, it would die. He opposed the compromise measures of 1850, on the ground that liberty and slavery are irreconcilable elements in our political system. He counseled disobedience to the Fugitive Slave Law, declaring that the requirements of humanity are above those of the Constitution. He urged Northerners to emigrate to Kansas, and use force to make it free soil. While expressing sympathy for John Brown, he deprecated his raid at Harper's Ferry as the act of a crazy old man, and denied the right of Northerners to attempt to breed discontent among the bondsmen, or to stir up bitterness against the South. He campaigned for Fremont, and in 1860 for Lincoln. After the war broke out, he urged its vigorous prosecution by the North, criticizing Lincoln severely for his delay in issuing an emancipation proclamation. In 1863 he visited England, and in the face of violent opposition supported the North in a number of speeches, which, while their influence in determining English opinion may have been exaggerated, were extraordinary platform accomplishments. After the war, although solicitous for the rights of the freedmen and advocating that they be given the franchise, he was in sympathy with President Johnson in the latter's desire that the seceding states be promptly admitted to the privileges of statehood in the Union, and military government in the South be discontinued as soon as possible. A letter expressing these sentiments written to a convention of soldiers and sailors held in Cleveland, Ohio, known as the " Cleveland Letter," was interpreted as a repudiation of the Republican party, and brought down upon him much criticism and abuse.

Neither in political nor in religious matters did Beecher display any particular originality. He broke no paths into new realms of truth; he started no new movements. He was not an investigator, a close reasoner, or even a student in the common acceptance of the term. He had little capacity for dealing with abstruse subjects, and seldom discerned the subtler elements in matters spiritual or temporal. The more or less obvious and practical were always his forte. Nevertheless, he had unusual intellectual vitality and fertility. He exploited every field of human interest, and was able to grasp fundamental principles, perceive essential facts, and with rare expository ability set them forth clearly and persuasively. Quickness of wit and resourcefulness enabled him always to take command of a situation. His type of mind, however, was preeminently that of the poet. He thought. in images and analogies. Never when speaking, he affirmed, was he at a loss for a word or a figure; his embarrassment was in choosing from the number which rose up before him.

The physical and emotional, in fact, were the dominant elements in Beecher's nature. These gave to his career both its strength and its weakness. In personal appearance he is said to have been one of the most striking figures in New York. He was of medium height and large girth, with broad shoulders upon which rested a lionesque head. His hair, gray in his later years, hung down in flowing locks over his coat collar. He was full-blooded, and his face, always cleanshaven, was ruddy in hue. His grayish-blue eyes were full of changing expression. He had a rich, sympathetic, flexible voice, responsive to every shade of emotion. His physical resources seemed inexhaustible. He exuded vitality and with it exuberant good humor. His senses were unusually acute. He had the artist's eye for colors, and took a sensuous delight in them. He deliberately turned to beautiful objects for their intoxicating effect, carrying precious stones in his pocket to be brought forth and gazed at when he felt so disposed. Some of them soothed him; others, he confessed, produced much the same effect as champagne. He craved an emotional atmosphere for his preaching, always had flowers in the church, and insisted upon hearty congregational singing. He displayed great charm and tact in meeting people, and a freedom with his friends, including women, which was unconventional, but so spontaneous and natural as to be inoffensive. There was nothing mean or petty in his constitution, but an overflowing good-will toward all. Free from race or sectarian prejudices, he was a Congregationalist because of the freedom that denomination afforded, but he appreciated the good in other churches, though he opposed all efforts to bring about organic church unity, convinced that the differing beliefs, tastes, and needs of men will forever make it impossible. When all is said, however, he was essentially a man of moods and impulses. He never thoroughly disciplined himself, or held himself to a fixed routine. He did what he felt like doing, and lacking a fine sense of propriety he frequently did and said what was in bad taste and unworthy of him. If he liked a thing he wanted it, an art dealer once commented, and no one could convince him that something else was more beautiful or better. Similarly he gave his approval to men and measures, because something in them appealed to him strongly, often to the chagrin of his friends and to his own later embarrassment.

His attitude on matters great as well as small was likewise determined by his emotional reactions. Just as the theological conceptions which came to him in the Ohio woods were precisely those which satisfied his inner cravings, so, throughout his career, his beliefs and activities were determined, not by critical, intellectual tests, but by the fact that they coincided with his feelings, predispositions, and intuitions. His intense love of freedom was due in no small part to his rebellion against the repressing influences and restraining Calvinism under which he grew up; his hatred of theological controversy and his tolerance, to the same cause. He believed in a personal God, but God had little reality to hide except as personified in Christ. It was the latter to whom he prayed, and in whom his passionate nature found that for which it hungered. "Shall I twine about him every affection," he said, ... "feed upon him as my bread, my wine, my water of life; ... in his strength vanquish sin, draw from him my hope and inspiration; ... die in his arms, awake with eager upspring to find him whom my soul loveth, only to be put away with the announcement that he is not the recipient of worship!" (Sermons, Harper's ed., 1868, I, 85). "I accept without analysis," he elsewhere says, "the tri-personality of God. I accept the Trinity; perhaps because I was educated in it. No matter why, I accept it" (Theological Statement, given in Lyman Abbott, Henry Ward Beecher, 1903, p. 432). He preached the love of God and the joy and glory of the Christian life, but put comparatively little emphasis upon God's righteousness and the importance of self-discipline, sacrifice, and the sterner virtues. Similarly, his activities in behalf of reform were determined by his dominant feelings. The condition of the slaves stirred his sympathies, and slavery itself was opposed to his love of freedom and his religious sentiments. He supported the woman suffrage movement, because he felt that the franchise is a natural right, and rebelled against interference with the exercise of it. He was a free-trader, because he believed protection to be socialistic in principle, and his individualism revolted against the militaristic aspects of that system. In his later years he embraced the theory of evolution gladly, because, as he interpreted it, it fitted in with his optimistic confidence in the possibilities of human nature, and his conviction that man had never fallen, but had ever been ascending. At the same time, he clung to his belief in miracles and special providences.

It is a mooted question whether Beecher's intensely emotional and sensuous nature, his lack of rigorous self-discipline, his rather unstable religious convictions, and his tendency to be a law unto himself, resulted in his being guilty of immoral acts; or whether he was the victim of false accusations. Theodore Tilton, a brilliant literary and newspaper man, and a radical reformer, was in his early years one of Beecher's admirers and proteges. Both Mr. and Mrs. Tilton were members of Plymouth Church and its pastor was a frequent caller at their home. Through Beecher's influence Tilton had been made assistant editor of the Independent, and upon the farmer's retirement from that office had become editor-in-chief. His criticism of the "Cleveland Letter" had caused Beecher to sever all connection with that paper. Tilton's unconventional views on marriage and religion became offensive to many of the subscribers, and that fact, together with the popularity of the Christian Union under Beecher's charge, reduced its circulation. Henry C. Bowen, its proprietor, relieved Tilton from the editorship, retaining him as a regular contributor, and made him editor of the Brooklyn Union. Late in 1870, partly through his influence, Beecher affirmed, Bowen summarily severed Tilton's connection with both papers. Rumors of gross immoralities on Tilton's part were afloat, and Beecher, on the advice of Mrs. Beecher, had counseled Mrs. Tilton to separate from him.

Scandalous stories affecting Beecher's character seem also to have had a clandestine existence for some years. In an interview on December 30, 1870, Tilton accused Beecher of improper relations with his wife, on the basis of a written confession made by her, which, after a call from Beecher, she retracted, saying it had been obtained under duress. A policy of silence was adopted by all concerned, but the story leaked out. On November 2, 1872, Victoria Woodhull published in Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly a highly colored account of "the character and conduct of Reverend Henry Ward Beecher in his relation with the family of Theodore Tilton." Not until June 30, 1873, however, did Beecher make public denial of the stories and rumors concerning him. In June 1874, Tilton published a statement in which he charged Beecher with an "offense against him which he forebore to name." Beecher then asked a committee of six from his church and society to investigate. After examining thirty-six witnesses, including Tilton, who made a partial statement and then refused to be questioned further, the committee reported that it "found nothing whatever in the evidence that should impair the perfect confidence of Plymouth Church or the world in the Christian character and integrity of Henry Ward Beecher." On August 20, 1874, Tilton filed a complaint against Beecher, charging him with adultery with Mrs. Tilton, and demanding damages of $100,000. The trial lasted six months, and was discussed all over the country. Public opinion was sharply divided. After nine days' deliberation, the jury failed to agree on a verdict, the final vote being nine to three in favor of the defendant. A year and a half later, a council of Congregational churches, made up of 244 representatives, convened at Plymouth Church, and, after an examination, declared: "We hold the pastor of this church, as we and all others are bound to hold him, innocent of the charges reported against him, until substantiated by proof." A committee of five was appointed to receive any charges and proof that might be offered, but none was forthcoming.

A review of the evidence presented at the trial, by an impartial body of people, would probably result in a difference of opinion such as existed in the jury. One cannot escape the conviction, however, that Beecher spoke truly when, as alleged, he told two of his attorneys who apologized for coming to consult with him on a Sunday afternoon: "We have it on good authority that it is lawful to pull an ass out of the pit on the Sabbath day. Well, there never was a bigger ass, or a deeper pit." Even his friends would probably have admitted a measure of truth in this statement from a newspaper review of the case: "Sensible men throughout the country will in their hearts be compelled to acknowledge that Mr. Beecher's management of his private friendships and affairs has been entirely unworthy of his name, position, and sacred calling" (New York Times, July 3, 1875).

The remainder of Beecher's career was somewhat shadowed by this scandal. His popularity, however, was not destroyed. The trial had cost him $118,000, and although for years his income had been large, he was always poor. To rehabilitate himself financially he lectured throughout the country. His voice was still heard on public matters. He attacked the corrupt judges of New York, advocated President Arthur's renomination, opposed Blaine, and actively supported Cleveland for the presidency. He also worked on his Life of Jesuits the Christ, the first volume of which had appeared in 1871. He did not live to finish the task, but it was completed by his sons and published in 1891. Beecher's purely literary attempts were not particularly successful. In 1867 he had published a novel, Norwood, or Village Life in New England, a series of descriptive sketches rather than a story. Just before his trial he had delivered the first three course s of the Lyman Beecher Lectures at Yale (Yale Lectures on Preaching, 1872-74). They still rank high among the many given in this series, and contain a wealth of homiletical wisdom. His disbelief in a literal Hell, and his acceptance of the evolutionary hypothesis, subjected him to much criticism, and on October 10, 1882, he withdrew, against its protest, from the Association of Congregational Ministers to which he belonged, that his brethren might not "bear the burden of responsibility of being supposed to tolerate the views" he had held and taught. In 1885 his Evolution and Religion appeared. For four months in 1886 he was in England where he preached and lectured. He conducted the services in Plymouth Church with his usual vigor on February 27, 1887, but on the following Sunday was at the point of death from cerebral hemorrhage, the end coming two days later. Forty thousand people viewed his body as it lay in the church before being taken for burial to Greenwood Cemetery.

[Much autobiographical material may be found in Beecher' s sermons and addresses. For the former, see Plymouth Pulpit, vols. I-X (1868-73), new series, vols. I-VII (1873-8 4), and Sermons by Henry Ward Beecher (2 vols., 1868). Lecture Room Talks (1870, 1872) is also illuminating. Star Papers, or Experiences of Art and Nature (1855 ) and New Star Papers, or Views and Experiences of Religious Subjects (1859) contain contributions to the Independent; Eyes and Ears (1862), contributions to the New York Ledger. Freedom and War (1863) is a collection of discourses on topics of the times. See also Patriotic Addresses (1887) ed. by John R. Howard, and Lectures and Orations by Henry Ward Beecher (1913) ed. by N. D. Hillis. Many compilations of his utterances have been made. There are a number of lives of Beecher, no one of which is altogether satisfactory. The latest, Paxton Hibben's Henry Ward Beecher, An American Portrait (1927), while bringing to light some new material and valuable for the social background it sketches and its list of sources, is decidedly unfriendly and fails to give a well-rounded portrayal. Earlier biographies are for the most part laudatory and uncritical. Among them are Lyman Abbott and S. B. Halliday, Henry Ward Beecher (1887; Thos. W. Knox, Life and Work of Henry Ward Beecher (1887); Jos. Howard, Jr., Life of Henry Ward Beecher (1887); Frank S. Child, The Boyhood of Henry Ward Beecher (1887); Wm. C. Beecher and Sam. Scoville, A Biography of Reverend Henry Ward Beecher (1888); John R. Howard, Henry Ward Beecher, a Study (1891); J. H. Barrows, Henry Ward Beecher (1893). Lyman Abbott, Henry Ward Beecher (1903), is an interpretation of Beecher's life and views, which while eulogistic is not without discrimination and contains a bibliography of Beecher publications prepared by W. E. Davenport. An analysis of Beecher's qualities as a preacher may be found in L. O. Brastow, Representative Modern Preachers (1904). For report of the Tilton-Beecher Case see, Theodore Tilton vs. Henry Ward Beecher, Action for Crim. Con. ... Verbatim Report by the Official Stenographer, pub. by McDivitt, Campbell & Co., New York (3 vols., 1875), and Austin Abbott, Official Report of the Trial of Henry Ward Beecher (2 vols., 1875).]

H.E.S.


BEECHER, Lyman, 1775-1863, abolitionist leader, clergyman, educator, writer.  Co-founder, American Temperance Society.  President, Lane Theological Seminary.  Major spokesman for the anti-slavery cause in the United States.  Father of notable abolitionists, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Ward Beecher, Edward Beecher and Charles Beecher.

BEECHER, LYMAN (October 12, 1775-January 12, 1863), Presbyterian clergyman, was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of David Beecher by his third wife, Esther (Lyman) Beecher. His father and grandfather were blacksmiths. His mother died of consumption two days after he was born, and he was brought up by an uncle and aunt on their farm in Guilford, Connecticut. Entering Yale when he was eighteen years of age, he was profoundly influenced by Timothy Dwight [q.v.], who became president of the college at the end of Beecher's sophomore year. After graduation he remained as a student of divinity under Dwight, who-was also the professor of theology. In 1799 he was ordained over the Presbyterian Church at East Hampton, L. I., and on September 19, 1799, he was married to Roxana Foote of Guilford, Connecticut. In East Hampton he preached with ever increasing power and reputation for ten years. His salary, at first $300 and fire-wood, was raised to $400, but a growing family made a change desirable. A published sermon of his so impressed Judge Reeve, founder of the Litchfield Law School, that he was called to the church in that town. Litchfield was then famous in New England for its distinguished men and for the wealth and culture of its leading families. Hither Beecher removed his household in 1810. Belonging to the new school of Calvinism which laid unremitting stress on the freedom of the human will, he aimed, according to the custom of those days, at a continuous revival. Preaching twice on Sunday, holding services during the week in school-houses and private homes, he soon made a deep impression on the town, and the meeting-house was crowded. At that time enforcement of the liquor laws was lax, and sentiment was apathetic to the evils of excessive drinking, even at the formal meetings of the ministers. Beecher was deeply concerned and preached in 1825 six successive sermons on the evil of intemperance; these had great effect and, when published, passed through many editions in this country and in England and were' translated into several foreign languages. Largely through Beecher's efficient leadership the General Association of Connecticut adopted drastic recommendations regarding temperance. Beecher took a prominent part in the formation of a Domestic Missionary Society for the education of young men for the ministry, as well as in establishing the American Bible Society, and he was a founder and constant contributor to the Connecticut Observer. In 1826 a wave of reaction against Unitarianism was so evident that the orthodox churches of Boston considered the time ripe for the establishment of a new church, which was organized in Hanover Street with thirty-seven members. Lyman Beecher was called as the minister most capable of expounding -and enforcing evangelical doctrines. Astonishing results came from his six and a half years of intense activity. Leonard Bacon in hi3 memorial address, declared "that no such religious movement had been known in Boston since the period of the Great Awakening eighty years before." The revival unfortunately also had its less attractive side. In 1831 Beecher delivered a series of fiery and intolerant lectures and sermons against the Catholics and thus became indirectly responsible for the sacking of a convent of Ursuline nuns at Charlestown by the Boston mob (James Truslow Adams, New England in the Republic 1776- 1856, 1926, pp. 334-36). Meanwhile, for the training of ministers in the West, Lane Theological Seminary had been started in Cincinnati; and Lyman Beecher was chosen as its first president and professor of theology, with a pledged endowment of $60,000 dependent upon his acceptance. This opportunity for influencing the religious life of the West made a strong appeal to Beecher. In 1832 he removed to Cincinnati to be the head of the new seminary and also pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church of that city. Almost immediately he was plunged into a violent theological controversy. The conservative Presbyterians assailed him bitterly with formal charges of heresy, slander, and hypocrisy: of heresy because his interpretation of the Westminster Confession differed from theirs, of slander because he maintained that his views were those of a large body of evangelical Christians, of hypocrisy because he pretended that his doctrines squared with the Scriptures and the Confession. He was acquitted by the · local presbytery and then by the synod. His opponents appealed to the General Assembly, but after three years of litigation were persuaded to withdraw the case. This deb ate had a disastrous effect on Presbyterianism in the West and was one of the causes which led to the division of 1837-38. Himself a discreet abolitionist, Beecher opposed the rules issued by the trustees in his absence in August 1834, which forbade all discussion of slavery by the students. He obtained a revision of these rules, but the seminary lost most of its students to Oberlin College, where a more liberal attitude prevailed. After eighteen years of service Beecher resigned in 1850, and the last years of his life were spent in the home of his son, Henry Ward Beecher, in Brooklyn, where he died. His first wife bore him five sorts and four daughters, and died of consumption Sept: 24, 1816. He married Harriet Porter of Portland, Maine, in November 1817; after bearing him three sons and one daughter, she died July 7, 1835; his third wife was Mrs. Lydia (Beals) Jackson of Boston.

[For general characterization of Lyman Beecher See sketch of Henry Ward Beecher. The chief sources for Lyman Beecher's biography are: F. B. Dexter, Biography Sketches Grads. Yale College, vol. V (1911); Autobiog., Correspondence, etc., of Lyman Beecher ( 1864); L. Beecher, Works (3 vols., 1852-53); C. E. Beecher, “Sketches and Recollections of Dr. Lyman Beecher" in Congreg. Quart., July 1864; Obit. Record Grads. Yale College, 1863; D. H. Allen, Life and Services of Reverend Lyman Beecher (1863); J. C. White, Personal  Recollections of Lyman Beecher (1882); E. T. Hayward, Lyman Beecher (1904); C. M. Rourke; Trumpets of Jubilee (1927); G. C. Woodruff, Geneal. Reg. of the Inhabitants of the T own of Litchfield, Connecticut. (1900); N. Goodwin, The Foote Family: or the Descendants of Nathaniel Foote (1849); Paxton Hibben, Henry Ward Beecher (1927).]

C.A.D.


BELKNAP, Dr. Jeremy, 1744-1798, Boston, Massachusetts, prominent theologian (Marcou, Jane Belknap, 1847; Appletons, 1888, Vol. 1, p. 224; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, p. 147; Locke, 1901, pp. 41, 90, 129, 134n, 187)

BELKNAP, JEREMY (June 4, 1744-June 20, 1798), Congregational clergyman, was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He was christened Jeremiah by his parents, Joseph and Sarah (Byles) Belknap, but later adopted the abbreviated form of his first name. His father was a leather-dresser and furrier; his mother was a niece of Reverend Mather Byles. Jeremy prepared for college at Mr. Lovell's school, and entered Harvard before he was fifteen years old. Upon graduating from Harvard in 1762 he taught school at Milton, Massachusetts, for a year or two, and afterward at Portsmouth and Greenland, New Hampshire. While thus engaged, he was studying for the ministry, and in 1766 he went to Dover, New Hampshire, where he was installed as pastor of the Congregational church. In the following year he married Ruth Eliot, daughter of Samuel Eliot, a bookseller in Cornhill, Boston. Although the relations between Belknap and Governor John Wentworth were distinctly cordial, the former favored the American cause in the approaching Revolution, especially after the passage of the Boston Port Bill. Soon after hostilities began he was appointed chaplain to the New Hampshire troops at Cambridge, but his health and other considerations prevented him from accepting the office (New Hampshire State Papers, VII, 562). After the war, in 1786, he resigned from his parish at Dover, and after preaching at various places in New Hampshire and Massachusetts he accepted, early in 1787, a call to the Federal Street Church in Boston. He continued as minister of that society during the remainder of his life.

Belknap's reputation rests chiefly on his History of New Hampshire, a work in three volumes which is remarkable for its research, impartiality, and literary merit. The author began it soon after establishing himself at Dover and he completed it more than twenty years later. The first volume appeared in 1784; the others followed in 1791 and 1792. In many ways Belknap's New Hampshire is the counterpart of Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts-Bay, but it has the additional merit of being a complete study to 1789, including a valuable treatise on the natural history of New Hampshire. About 1787 Belknap amused himself by writing The Foresters, a humorous allegory describing the origin and rise of the British colonies in North America. It appeared serially in the Columbian Magazine, and later (1792) the chapters were collected and put forth as a small book. Belknap's next production was his American Biography, two volumes containing sketches of the lives of the more famous early explorers and colonial leaders. The first volume was published in 1794; the second, just after his death in 1798.

In Boston, Belknap discovered other gentlemen who were interested in the writing of history and in the preservation of historical papers and memorabilia. Conspicuous among these were William Tudor, the Reverend John Eliot, the Reverend Peter Thacher, and James "Winthrop. In the summer of 1790 Belknap formulated a plan for an "Antiquarian Society," and in January of the following year he and his four friends mentioned above held their first meeting. This was the beginning of the Massachusetts Historical Society, which was incorporated in 1794. Its first president was James Sullivan, who later became governor of Massachusetts; Belknap was elected corresponding secretary. This society was the first of its kind in the United States, and Belknap endeavored to promote the formation of similar institutions in the other states. Besides his historical works he wrote a biography of Isaac Watts, which appeared anonymously in 1793 in the same volume with a life of Dr. Doddridge by Andrew Kippis. In 1795 he published Dissertations on the Character,  Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the Evidence of his Gospel; in the same year he issued a collection of psalms and hymns, which was widely used by the Congregational churches of New England for many years. Other significant publications were a Sermon on Military Duty (1773), a Discourse intended to Commemorate the Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus (1792), and a Sermon delivered before the Convention of the Clergy of Massachusetts (1796). A portrait of Belknap by Henry Sargent in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society shows a thick-set, perhaps corpulent man, with an intelligent and benevolent countenance. His health appears never to have been robust, but he seldom spared himself on that account either in his ministry or in his literary pursuits.

[There is a good brief biography of Belknap by his grand-daughter, Jane Belknap Marcou (1847). Several volumes of his correspondence are preserved in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Many of these papers have been printed in the Society's Collections, series 5, vols. II, III, and series 6, vol. IV. His "Journal of a Tour from Boston to Oneida, June, 1796," is printed in the Massachusetts Historical Society Proc., XIX, 396-423. A number of interleaved almanacs containing notes made by Belknap are also preserved in the Society's library.]

L.S.M.


BELL, James Madison, 1826-1902, African American abolitionist, poet, lecturer.  Member of African American community in Chatham, Ontario, Canada.  Supported John Brown on his raid on the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.  Supported African American civil rights before and after the Civil War. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 1, p. 463.  American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2, p. 502.)


BELL, Philip Alexander, 1808-1889, African American abolitionist, editor, journalist, civic leader.  Member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).  Subscription Agent for abolitionist newspaper, Liberator.  Active in Underground Railroad.  Editor, “Weekly Advocate” and later assisted with “Colored American” early Black newspapers.  Founded “National Council of Colored People,” one of the first African American civil rights organizations. (American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2, p. 516)


BEMAN, Amos Geary, 1812-1874, New Haven, Connecticut, African American clergyman, abolitionist, speaker, temperance advocate, community leader.  Member of the American Anti-Slavery Society 1833-1840.  Later, founding member of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.  Traveled extensively and lectured on abolition.  Leader, Negro Convention Movement.  Founder and first Secretary of Anti-Slavery Union Missionary Society.  Later organized as American Missionary Association (AMA), 1846.  Championed Black civil rights.  Promoted anti-slavery causes and African American civil rights causes, worked with Frederick Douglass and wrote for his newspaper, The North Star.  (American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2, p. 540; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 1, p. 463)


BEMAN, Jehiel C., c. 1789-1858, Connecticut, Boston, Massachusetts, African American, clergyman, abolitionist, temperance activist.  Manger, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1837-1839.  Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1841-1843. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 1, p. 477)


BEMAN, Mrs. Jehiel C., African American, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 58n40)


BEMAN, Nathaniel Sydney Smith, 1785-1871, Presbyterian college president, clergyman, abolitionist (Sorin, 1971, p. 90; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 231-232; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 171-172; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2, p. 541)

BEMAN, NATHAN SIDNEY SMITH  (November 26, 1785-August 6, 1871), Presbyterian clergyman, college president, was born at New Lebanon, New York, the son of Samuel and Silence (Douglass) Beman, of German and Scotch ancestry, from whom he acquired a taste for learning and an interest in theology. Matriculating at Williams College in 1803, he withdrew at the end of the second term and entered Middlebury College a year later. During the interim he taught at Fairhaven, Vermont, upon graduation, in 1807, he became preceptor at Lincoln Academy, Newcastle, Maine. In 1809 he accepted a tutorship at Middlebury. He was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Portland, Maine, during 1810-12. He then established a school at Mount Zion, Ga., where, with the exception of a year (1818) which he spent as president of Franklin College, he remained until he was called to Troy, New York, in 1823, as minister of the First Presbyterian Church. There he became associated with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In 1842 he was elected vice-president and, in 1845, president, a position which he held until 1865. Although he was professor of philosophy until his retirement, and although he served as director during 1859-60, succeeding Benjamin Franklin Greene, he does not appear to have aided him in the reorganization linked with his name. In the city, however, he was a power during the forty years of his ministry. His first independent publication, reprinted in England, consisted of Four Sermons on the Doctrine of the Atonement (1825). Although he published other addresses, his influence was due primarily to his impressiveness in the pulpit. Reserved and even arrogant, he nevertheless held his congregations by an eloquence wrought of emotion as well as intellect. Many of his discourses- especially his Thanksgiving orations were pugnaciously controversial. He assailed relentlessly the doctrine of the apostolic succession maintained by the Protestant Episcopal Church. Even more biting were his attacks on the claims of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, which he challenged in his Letters to Reverend John Hughes (1851). His chief battlefield, however, was th  Presbyterian Church. In 1826 he initiated a series of revivals which a roused the antagonism of conservative clergymen. Although he was rebuked by a convention summoned in the same year, he was chosen moderator of the General Assembly in 1831. By 1837, however, he had become head of the New School movement; and, as such, he was largely responsible for the disruption of 1838. Without slighting his parochial duties, he acquired a reputation as a publicist that was more than local. In his advocacy of abolition, especially, he incurred the enmity which is the lot of every reformer.

[Beman's career as an educator is reflected in the minutes of the Board of Trustees of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and in the catalogues and registers, 1842-65. Palmer C. Ricketts, History of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1895) contains a note of his services. A fuller sketch occurs in Henry B. Nason's Biography Record of the Officers and Grads. of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1887). Beman's ministry in Troy is treated in the Proc. Centennial Annivsary. First Presby. Church, Troy (1891). His conduct is criticized severely in Josephus Brockway 's Delineations of the Characteristic Features of a Revival in Troy (1827). Although equally biased, Marvin R. Vincent's Memorial Sermon (1872) and the addresses and notices printed with it contain much valuable information.]

R. P. Ba-r.


BENEZET, Anthony, 1713-1784, French-born American, Society of Friends, Quaker, philanthropist, author, reformer, educator, early and important abolitionist leader.  Founded Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage, in Philadelphia.  Also founded one of the first girls’ public schools that was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Worked with abolitionist John Woolman.  Wrote: A Caution and Warning to Great Britain and Her Colonies, in a Short Representation of the Calamitous State of the Enslaved Negroes in the British Dominions, 1766; Some Historical Account of Guinea, Its Situation, Produce, and the General Disposition of Its Inhabitants, with an Enquiry into the Rise and Progress of the Slave-Trade, Its Nature and Lamentable Effects, 1771; and Observations on the Inslaving, Importing and Purchasing Negroes, 1748. (Basker, 2005; Bruns, 1977, pp. 108, 214, 221, 224, 246, 262-263, 269-270, 302; Drake, 1950, pp. 54-56, 62, 64, 70, 75, 83, 86, 90-94, 106-107, 112-113, 120-121, 155; Dumond, 1961, pp. 17, 19, 52, 87; Locke, 1901, pp. 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 34, 52, 54, 56, 78, 94; Nash, 1991; Pease, 1965, pp. xxiv, 1-5; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 17-20, 290, 331, 433, 458, 515; Soderlund, 1985, pp. 4, 10, 29-30, 43-45, 47, 78, 140, 151, 166, 170-171, 174, 175, 176, 186, 189, 198; Zilversmit, 1967, pp. 27, 72, 74-75, 85-93, 98, 125, 131; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 234; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 177-178; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2, p. 562; Vaux, Robert, Memoirs of the Life of Anthony Benezet, 1817.)

BENEZET, ANTHONY (January 31, 1713-May 3, 1784), philanthropist, author, was born in San Quentin, in Picardy, France, the son of Jean Etienne Benezet. The family were Huguenots. Increasing persecution, following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, caused the parents in 1715 to take refuge in Rotterdam, soon leaving Holland, however, for London, where they remained sixteen years. Here the young Anthony received a liberal education, served an apprenticeship in a mercantile house, and coming under Quaker influence, joined that sect at the early age of fourteen. In 1731 the family removed to Philadelphia, bringing with them the lad of eighteen, "well recommended by divers Friends." For a brief time, Anthony appears to have been in business with his brothers, John, Philip, and Daniel, who later were successful importers of goods from London, Philip Benezet's advertisements being frequent in the Pennsylvania Gazette about 1759-60. In May 1736 Anthony Benezet married Joyce, daughter of Samuel and Mary Marriott of Burlington, New Jersey, and began a happy married life of forty-eight years. Dislike for the merchant's life to which he had been brought up, after a brief experience as a manufacturer in Wilmington, Delaware, determined him to follow his inclination to teach. Going first to the Germantown Academy, in 1742 he became a teacher in the Friends' English Public School in Philadelphia, now the William Penn Charter School, where he remained for the next twelve years. In this profession, to which the rest of his life was devoted, Benezet found congenial occupation, and an outlet for the energies of his active and altruistic mind. Finding female education defective, he established a girls' school in 1755.

At this time Benezet, always an omnivorous reader, began to be greatly interested in the amelioration of conditions among the slaves, and the reports of travelers and agents in the West Indies and in Africa aroused his pity and indignation. John Woolman of New Jersey, although seven years younger than himself, had completed his first tour among the slaveholders of the South, and their life-long intimacy resulted in Benezet's carrying on the remarkable pioneer work of Woolman, after the death of the younger man. He began to publish articles in almanacs and the papers of the day, and is sued pamphlets, usually gratuitously distributed, on the subject of slavery. His knowledge of French led to a voluminous correspondence abroad with such men as the Abbe Raynal in France, and Granville Sharp, Wilberforce, and Clarkson in England. He also corresponded with Benjamin Franklin while the latter was abroad. He wrote Frederick the Great on the unlawfulness of war, and sent letters acceptably to the queens of England, France, and Portugal.

 In 1766, finding himself absorbed in too many activities to carry out his philosophy of the simple life of studious leisure, and in frail health, he retired to Burlington, New Jersey, the early home of his wife, and sought a quieter existence. But the urge toward alleviation of at least some of the sufferings of his fellow-beings was too great to be resisted, and at the end of less than two years he was again in Philadelphia, teaching, and writing voluminously. It was probably while in Burlington that he wrote what is perhaps his most important work-A Caution and Warning to Great Britain and Her Colonies on the Calamitous State of the Enslaved Negroes (1766). This was examined and approved by the Yearly Meeting of Philadelphia in 1766, and many copies were distributed in England. It was shortly followed by his Historical Account of Guinea; Its Situation, Produce and the General Disposition of Its Inhabitants (1771), a publication which gave to Thomas Clarkson his first facts on the slave trade, and was the source of the impulse to begin his long and active protest against it.

It was natural, when the French in 1756 were expelled from Acadia, that the 500 who made their way to Philadelphia should find in Anthony Benezet their chief friend. The whole Quaker body joined him for their relief, together with the French residents, and in Philadelphia many of the Acadians found a permanent home. Benezet established and taught for the last two or three years of his life, a school for the "Blacks," which, after the death of his wife, he left his slender fortune to endow. The Overseers of the Friends' Public Schools were made the trustees. This school has been fostered ever since by the Quakers, and, merged with other and similar charities, is now (1927) the "Benezet House" of 918 Locust St., Philadelphia. In 1774 Benezet published his essay on the immoderate use of liquor, The Mighty Destroyer Displayed, which suggested to his friend, Dr. Benjamin Rush, the latter's pamphlet in 1776, Sermons to Gentlemen on Temperance and Exercise. In 1780 appeared Benezet's Short Account of the People Called Quakers; Their Rise, Religious Principles and Settlement in America. Just before his death the Indians, for whom he had long labored, and their injustices under the new Government, were engaging Benezet's attention, and he wrote Some Observations on the Situation, Disposition, and Character of the Indian Natives of This Continent (published anonymously, 1784). This is thought to have been intended as a prelude to a more extended work on the subject.

[Roberts Vaux, Memoirs of the Life of Anthony Benezet (1817); Wilson Armistead, Select Miscellanies (1851), I, 119, 133, 148 ff.; Marquis de Chastellux, Travels in North-America (London, 1787), pp. 278 ff.]

A.M.G.


BENSON, George William, 1808-1879, Providence, Rhode Island, abolitionist, Society of Friends (Quaker).  Manager and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833, Brooklyn, Connecticut.  Brother-in-law of abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison.  (Clark, 2003; Garrison, Wendell Phillips, 1885; Mabee, 1970, pp. 82, 85, 109, 149; Van Broekhoven, 2002, pp. 17, 21-22, 68, 86-87; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)


BETHUNE, George Washington, 1805-1862, Dutch Reform clergyman, abolitionist (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 252-253; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 229-230).

BETHUNE, GEORGE WASHINGTON (March 18, 1805-April28, 1862), Dutch Reformed clergyman, was born in New York, the son of Divie (afterward Richard) Bethune, of Huguenot extraction, and his wife, Joanna Graham, both being natives of Scotland. The boy was reared in a home of wealth and piety, was instructed by private tutors and at the academy at Salem, New York, and entered Columbia in 1819. After three years there he went to Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1823. After studying theology at Princeton, he was ordained by the Second Presbytery of New York, November 10, 1827, and immediately entered the Dutch Reformed Church, where he remained throughout his life. His pastorates were: Rhinebeck, New York, 1827-30; Utica, 1830-34; the First and Third churches in Philadelphia, 1834-49; Brooklyn Heights, 1850-59; and the Twenty-first Street Church, New York City, 1859-62. He made several extended trips to Europe, and died of apoplexy at Florence, Italy, where he had gone for the recovery of his health.

At various times in his life the way was opened to him to become chaplain and professor of moral science at West Point, chancellor of New York University, and provost of the University of Pennsylvania. But he preferred to remain in the pastorate. While in Brooklyn he was for a time lecturer on pulpit oratory in the Theological Seminary at New Brunswick. His pulpit work was distinguished for its oratorical power and its devotional qualities. He was an exact student, a musician, a poet, the author of several well-known hymns and many publications on religious themes. He published a volume of his own poems, entitled Lays of Love and Faith (1848), and edited The British Female Poets, with Biographical and Critical Notices (1848). ln 1846 he issued the first American edition of Walton's Complete Angler, in which the volume of the work itself was nearly equaled by that of the editor's introduction and appendix containing ballads, music, and papers on American fishing, with the most complete catalogue of books on angling ever printed. Owing to the public feeling against the propriety of such a book by a clergyman, it was published anonymously. An untiring fisherman, Bethune also collected about 700 works on angling and kindred subjects. In politics he was a staunch Democrat, was opposed alike to slavery and Abolitionism and was a prominent member of the Colonization Society. He was the author of a letter to President Buchanan urging him to suppress the pro-slavery propaganda of the South, and when the Confederacy was formed he stood firmly for the Union. On November 4, 1825, he married Mary Williams, to whom he was deeply devoted. Mrs. Bethune, who survived her husband, was an invalid for most of her life, and there were no children.

[A Memoir (1867) of Dr. Bethune was written by Dr. A. R. Van Nest, his colleague in his last pastorate. Briefer accounts are found in Henry Fowler's American Pulpit ( 1856) and Edward T. Corwin's Manual of the Reformed Church in America (3rd ed., 1879). All the foregoing have portraits, and in the last there is a full bibliography of Bethune's published works.]

F.T.P.



Source: Dictionary of American Biography, Volumes I-X, Edited by Dumas Malone, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930.