Oliver Johnson
- First Name
- Oliver
- Last Name
- Johnson
- Born
- 27 December 1809
- Died
- 10 December 1889
- Profession
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Abolitionist
Author
Editor - Relation
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"Two young men, brothers, who were afterwards widely and honorably known in connection with the anti-slavery cause, were first brought to public notice during the Canterbury conflict. I allude to Charles C. and William H. Burleigh. The former was the chosen editor of “The Unionist,” the paper established by Mr. May for the defence of Miss Crandall. He had just fitted himself for the bar, and gave promise of eminence in his chosen profession. As an editor he did a good work, and so also did his brother as his assistant. Both of them afterwards entered the anti-slavery field as lecturers. Both were powerful and eloquent champions of the cause. William was for some time editor of an anti-slavery paper in Pittsburgh. He was a poet of no mean reputation. In the division of 1840, he joined the Liberty party; but Charles continued his association with Mr. Garrison to the close of the conflict. Few men did more than the latter, by public speech, to form the public opinion which demanded the overthrow of slavery. He was as remarkable for his clear-sightedness and devotion as for his eloquence.
If anybody wishes to know how it happens that Windham County, by her large Republican majority, has often saved the State of Connecticut from falling into the hands of the Copperhead Democracy, he may find the explanation in the facts above related, and in the discussions that ensued. The Abolitionism of that county was of the most thorough sort, receiving its impress and its impetus from men in full sympathy with Mr. Garrison. In that county the Rev. Samuel J. May, of blessed memory, did his earliest and best work, supported by the Bensons, the Burleighs, and others of a no less sterling character. There was in the beginning a Garrisonian grip and vim in the anti-slavery sentiment of the county that was never lost, and that no political arts could overcome. In other parts of the State abolitionism was less intelligent and less thorough, and subject to unfortunate dilutions from men of expediency, whose every word against slavery was supplemented by two in opposition to “the extravagances of Garrison.” Milk and water is not the diet that makes reform sinewy and powerful. If Connecticut anti-slavery, like that of Massachusetts, had been fed from the table of “The Liberator,” that State, at no time within the last twenty-five years, would have been in danger of falling into the hands of the pro-slavery Democracy. Every county in it would have been as thoroughly abolitionized as Windham."
From Johnson, Oliver. William Lloyd Garrison and His Times. First edition. Boston: B. B. Russell & Co., 1880. 127-128. -
The Unionist
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Charles Calistus Burleigh
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William Henry Burleigh
- Media
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Oliver Johnson
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