Henry Stanton

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Henry Brewster Stanton (June 27, 1805 – January 14, 1887) was a 19th century abolitionist and social activist.

Stanton was born at (Griswold) Preston, Connecticut, the son of Joseph Stanton and Susan M. Brewster. His wife, Elizabeth Cady Stanton was also heavily involved in social issues, including abolition of slavery and women's rights. The couple was married on May 1, 1840, and had seven children.

Stanton was well known as a dynamic orator and capable writer, and used these skills as a journalist, attorney, and politician. In 1826, Stanton began writing for the Monroe Telegraph in Rochester, New York. He also wrote for the New York Tribune, when Horace Greeley was editor, and then for the New York Sun until his death. In 1832, he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, to study theology at Lane Seminary, but chose to actively join the abolitionist movement before completing his course. After his marriage, Stanton studied law and became a successful patent attorney in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1847, he and his family established a home in Seneca Falls, New York, and he returned to journalism and politics.

While in Rochester, Stanton also began both his political and speaking career, making speeches advocating the election of John Quincy Adams as President of the United States. He was widely recognized as a premier American orator on social issues, and was a primary spokesman for the abolitionist movement prior to the American Civil War. He was known for his skill in extemporaneous speaking, and his wife reported that he was occasionally asked to speak on a random topic for the amusement of the audience. In the 1840's, Stanton went on an anti-slavery European speaking tour, touching most of the principal cities of England, Scotland, Ireland and France. Throughout their lives, Henry and Elizabeth Stanton traveled widely, both jointly and separately, speaking and organizing for social causes that included temperance, abolition and women's rights. In fact, when Henry died unexpectedly in 1887, Elizabeth was in London speaking on behalf of voting rights for women.

Abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass provided Stanton's son, Theodore, this memory of the first time he heard Henry B. Stanton speak in public:

"When I was escaping from bondage I was received under the humble but hospitable roof of Nathan Johnson, an old colored man....Nathan Johnson also told me all about Henry B. Stanton's wonderful oratorical powers, and took me one evening to hear him denounce the slave system. It was one of the first abolition lectures I ever heard, and this circumstance, combined with the eloquence of the speaker, left an ineffaceable impression on my mind. Your father was then unquestionably the best orator in the anti-slavery movement. I listened to him on many other occasions, but this first one, when I was fresh from slavery, naturally touched me the most deeply." (see below: Obituary and family recollections.)

Politically and socially active throughout his life, Stanton served as Deputy County Clerk of Monroe County, New York, for three years, and as secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1834. He served two terms in the Massachusetts Senate as a member of the Free Soil party. In 1850, he served in the New York Senate. Stanton helped to launch the Republican Party in 1855, and was an ardent Republican on the issues of slavery and secession.

Stanton's publications included many pamphlets on social issues and the book length Sketches of Reforms and Reformers in Great Britain and Ireland, (New York, 1849) an examination of British social conditions and activists. In addition, he was finishing the fourth edition of his autobiography, Random Recollections (1885) at the time of his death of pneumonia in 1887 in New York City. Stanton also had a lifelong interest in horticulture and gardening, and was known for setting aside time every day to tend the trees, fruits and vegetables in his garden.

[edit] Reference

Stanton, Henry B., "Random Recollections." First edition, published 1885, Johnstown, NY: Blunck & Leaning.

[edit] Further reading

Banner, Lois W., "Elizabeth Cady Stanton: A Radical for Women's Rights." Addison-Wesley Publishers, 1997. ISBN 0-673-39319-4.
Griffith, Elisabeth, "In Her Own Right: The Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton." Oxford University Press, Great Britain, 1985. ISBN 0-19-503729-4.