Whipping of Amos Dresser facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Amos Dresser
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | December 17, 1812 |
| Died | February 4, 1904 (aged 91) |
| Alma mater | Oneida Institute, Lane Theological Seminary, Oberlin Collegiate Institute |
| Occupation | Minister, missionary, abolitionist activist (paid), abolition and temperance lecturer. |
| Known for | Public whipping for possessing abolitionist publications |
Amos Dresser (born December 17, 1812 – died February 4, 1904) was an important abolitionist and pacifist minister. An abolitionist worked to end slavery, and a pacifist believes in peaceful ways to solve problems. Amos Dresser was one of the people who helped start Olivet College.
He became famous during the time before the American Civil War because of something that happened in 1835. He was arrested, put on trial, found guilty, and publicly whipped in Nashville, Tennessee. His "crime" was having books and papers that spoke out against slavery. This event was reported widely and became very well known. Dresser later wrote about what happened and often spoke about it to others.
Contents
Amos Dresser's Early Life
Amos Dresser was born in Peru, Massachusetts. His family had a long history in America, as he was a descendant of Robert Cushman, one of the Mayflower pilgrims.
Amos's father died when he was a baby. He lived with his mother, Minerva Cushman, and her second husband, Henry Pierce. His mother passed away in 1826 when Amos was 13 years old. For a while, he worked in a store and also taught at a school.
To prepare for becoming a minister, he joined the Oneida Institute of Science and Industry in 1830. This was a new type of school near Utica, New York, called a manual labor school. Students worked with their hands to help pay for their education. At the time, Oneida was one of the most active schools in the country for the anti-slavery movement.
Joining the Lane Rebels
Amos Dresser was one of the first students to join a group led by Theodore Weld. This group left Oneida and later enrolled at the new Lane Seminary near Cincinnati, Ohio. This was one of the first times students in America organized to protest for a cause. Dresser and his group actively taught African Americans in Cincinnati.
This group of students became known as the Lane Rebels. In 1834, they all left Lane Seminary together. This happened after the school told students they could not talk about slavery. However, Amos Dresser did not immediately go to Oberlin Collegiate Institute, which was another school many of the Lane Rebels joined.
The Whipping in Nashville
In the summer of 1835, Amos Dresser traveled through the South. He was selling Bibles to earn money for his education. While in Nashville, Tennessee, people found out he had literature that was against slavery.
He was brought before a group of about sixty important citizens. This group was not a real court; it was an unofficial "vigilance committee." Dresser bravely spoke out against this unfair trial and against slavery itself.
The Committee's Decision
After looking at his papers, books, and letters, the committee decided he was guilty of several things:
- Being an active member of an anti-slavery group in Ohio.
- Having "dangerous" pamphlets that, if shared, could cause slaves to rebel.
- Showing these pamphlets to the public.
He was sentenced to "twenty stripes on his bare back." This punishment was carried out in public. The committee claimed that if they had not punished him, he would have faced even worse harm. After the whipping, Dresser quickly left Nashville. He had to leave without his luggage and horse, which he never got back.
Sharing His Story
The Nashville Republican newspaper even printed a special edition about what happened to him.
Amos Dresser later wrote about his experience in the Cincinnati Daily Gazette. His story was printed again in pamphlets, and the American Anti-Slavery Society also shared it. He often spoke about the whipping during his lectures against slavery. In 1837, he told his story to the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. Southern newspapers also wrote about the event, supporting his account. However, they claimed his Bible-selling was just a trick to hide his real goal of spreading anti-slavery ideas and causing slave rebellions.
In 1836, Dresser became a successful speaker for the American Anti-Slavery Society. He worked with Henry B. Stanton, another leader against slavery. He gave lectures in places like Athol, Massachusetts, Ashburn, and Slatersville, Rhode Island. Later, he went to Jamaica to help another Lane Rebel, David Ingraham, with missionary work among African Americans there.
Dresser's Later Life
Amos Dresser returned to Ohio and joined other Lane Rebels at the Oberlin Collegiate Institute. He earned a degree from Oberlin in 1839. While studying, he continued to work as a lecturer for the American Anti-Slavery Society.
After finishing his studies, he married Adeline Smith, who had also been a student at Oberlin. From 1839 to 1841, they worked as missionaries in Jamaica. One of their children was named Amos Dresser, Jr.
For two years, they lived in Batavia, Ohio, where he was a pastor for two churches. From 1843 to 1846, he taught at the Olivet Institution in Olivet, Michigan. This school was started by other Oberlin graduates. He then worked for Elihu Burritt and the League of Universal Brotherhood, groups that promoted peace. In 1849, he published a book called The Bible Against War.
His first wife, Adeline, died in 1850. In 1851, he married Ann Jane Gray, another former Oberlin student. They had a daughter named Adeline Minerva Dresser. They traveled through Europe, where Dresser gave talks about temperance (avoiding alcohol) and ending slavery.
When they came back to the United States, they settled in Farmington, Ohio, where Dresser worked as a pastor. He also served as a minister in New Harmony, Indiana. From 1852 to 1865, Dresser was a pastor in churches in Trumbull and Ashtabula Counties, Ohio. This area was known as the Connecticut Western Reserve and was a major center for the Underground Railroad, a secret network that helped slaves escape to freedom.
From 1865 to 1869, he was a pastor for three churches in Oceana County, Michigan. In 1869, he moved to Butler County, Nebraska, where he served a very large area. In 1879, he moved to Red Willow County, Nebraska. Towards the end of his life, Amos and Ann Jane Dresser lived in Lawrence, Kansas, with one of their children, and both passed away there.
Writings
Amos Dresser's writings, including parts of his story about the whipping, were printed in The Liberator newspaper on March 1, March 29, and April 5, 1850. These articles received a long response in a letter published in The Liberator on April 26. He also spoke about these topics to the Ashtabula (Ohio) Bible Society in 1858.
