Elihu Embree
Elihu Embree(November 11, 1782 – December 4, 1820) was anabolitionistinJonesborough, Tennessee,and publisher ofManumission Intelligencier(later renamed asThe Emancipator). Founded in 1819, it was the first newspaper in theUnited Statesdevoted exclusively to the cause of abolishingslavery.[1][2]
Early life
[edit]Embree was the son of aQuakerminister and his wife who moved fromPennsylvaniatoWashington CountyinEast Tennesseearound 1790.[1](Quakers in Pennsylvania had largely opposed slavery, and some ministers traveled in the South after the American Revolution urging planters to free their slaves.) He had an older brother Elijah. It is not known where Elihu attended school, although some accounts suggest he was taught by noted Presbyterian minister,Samuel Doak,atWashington College Academy.[3]
Business activities
[edit]Elihu Embree was involved in the iron manufacturing business with his brother, Elijah. Elijah married well, to a granddaughter of the first Tennessee governor,John Sevier,who was re-elected to several terms. When Elijah Embree died in 1846, he owned 70,000 acres (280 km2) of mineral-rich land valued at nearly one million dollars.
Elihu became known as a visionary and was considered a poor business manager. During his early life, he owned slaves, having purchased several and come into possession of a number of others held by his wife (property rules meant that a man controlled his wife's property). Around 1812, however, Embree freed all their slaves, at a considerable financial sacrifice. Soon afterward he became an ardent anti-slavery advocate along with his brother and they remained so until their death.[1][4]
Publishing career
[edit]In 1819, after securing the approval and cooperation of the Manumission Society of Tennessee, of which he was an active member, and later leader.[5]Embree began to publish a weekly anti-slavery paper atJonesborough, Tennesseeunder the name of theManumission Intelligencier.Its first issue appeared in March.[6]Very little is known about the paper. Of the fifty or more issues that were published, fewer than a dozen copies are known to have survived to the twentieth century.[1][7]
In April 1820, Embree changed the paper from a weekly to a monthly format and renamed it asThe Emancipator,though it remained under the same editor.[1]The first issue carried an editorial saying the paper was intended to "advocate the abolition of slavery, and to be a repository of tracts on that interesting and important subject."[8]Its article condemned slavery and slaveholders in the strongest terms, and forcefully pointed out the evils of the system of slavery.
Although the abolitionist paper was published in aslave state,The Emancipatorachieved remarkable popularity. At the time of Embree's early death in 1820 it could boast of 2,000 paying subscribers, which was probably as large as that of any newspaper in either Tennessee or Kentucky. The border states had numerous organizations and members devoted to the abolition of slavery. East Tennessee was an area of strong anti-slavery sentiment at this time. But, the paper also encountered considerable opposition from those who supported slavery.[1]Embree was noted as being extremely harsh on condemning slavery and even compared to the well known abolitionistWilliam Lloyd Garrison.
The Emancipatorwas published for only eight months because Embree died, aged 38, on December 4, 1820.[9]He was diagnosed with "bilious fever".[3]Later Garrison'sThe Liberatorwould be published in 1831. By then, there would be 25 anti-slavery societies in Tennessee.[10]
A full collection of the journal, comprising one hundred and twelve pages, was reprinted in 1932 by B. H. Murphy. In 1974, the Tennessee legislature honored the memory of Elihu Embree for his work on behalf of the "universal and equal liberty of all men".[3]
References and notes
[edit]- ^abcdefMartin, Asa E. (March 1916). "Pioneer Anti-Slavery Press".Mississippi Valley Historical Review.2(4). The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 2, No. 4: 509–528.doi:10.2307/1886909.JSTOR1886909.
- ^An earlier anti-slavery newspaper,The Philanthropist,was published in Mount Pleasant, Ohio. However,The Philanthropistalso covered topics other than slavery.
- ^abcNash, John F. (November–December 1995)."Elihu Embree—A Forerunner"(PDF).The Beacon.Lucius. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2011-05-21.
- ^Hoss, Elijah E. (1897).Elihu Embree, Abolitionist.Nashville: Vanderbilt Southern Historical Society. pp. 6–7.
- ^"UNDERGROUND RAILROAD".tncivilwar.org.
- ^White, Moses (c. 1878). "East Tennessee Journalism".Nashville American.
- ^Temple, Oliver P. (1899).East Tennessee and the Civil War.Cincinnati. p. 91.
{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^Embree, Elihu (April 30, 1820). "Address of the Editor".The Emancipator.1(1).
- ^Martin dates Embree's death to December 12, 1820, although other sources give December 4.
- ^"UNDERGROUND RAILROAD".tncivilwar.org.
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