Theodore Dwight Weld

I was born on September 23rd, 1803, in Hampton Connecticut. I grew up in a strict and religious household and went to academies where I learned about religion such as Andover Academy in Massachusetts and Lane Theological Seminary in Ohio. I was never close to my father and felt it was necessary that I to go into the study of religion. I worked as a travelling lecturer, a public speaker, where I witnessed slavery for the first time. Since then I joined the American Anti-Slavery Society. I thought the best place to speak against slavery was the West because they were only just developing as states and yet to have a collective opinion on the issue. I've traveled throughout the West and South and even back North where I've convinced and converted thousands, including members in the house. I assisted John Quincy Adams in his campaign against slavery in the House. My converts were a number of seventy and I taught them the sin freeing rightness of abolitionism. They traveled throughout the country spreading pamphlets I've made such as "The Bible Against Slavery".

My goal was to spread anti-slavery, abolitionism, to free the slaves ever since my first experience during my travelling. I joined Captain Charles Stuart and Charles G. Finney in a Holy Band of evangelists where I realized the sin of slavery. I then joined the American Anti Slave Society to work towards the emancipation of the slaves. I've used the words of the Constitution to reveal the hypocrisy and sin of the nation. Equal rights of the slaves is what I demanded because God gave life to all men with no condition of birth and no shade of color. Slavery is a sin against God

In my speeches I've told people the only way relieve America of it's sin is to follow the path of moral rightness and end slavery. The nation is not truly based on liberty because millions are denied freedom and basic rights. Free all the slaves and grant them equal rights as fellow human beings. Whoever robs a man of his rights overthrows justice, unsettles the foundations of human safety, and assumes the power of God. I was able to convert thousands of people, including members of the House and joined President John Q. Adams in his campaign against slavery in the House. There were times the AASS lost popularity due to our pamphlets coming on too strong. "Immediate Emancipation" brought protests and mobs to our feet. And with me losing my voice I was out of the speeches and was left to publish pamphlets and training converts. In my career I've published a few works but never under my name, the magazine Emancipator, the pamphlet "The Bible Against Slavery", and the book American Slavery as It Is.

Though my primary goal is abolition of slavery I've met a few women that would become leaders in the fight for women's rights such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, daughter of the head of Lane Seminary and writer, Angelina Gimke and Sarah Grimke, sisters who I met at Lane and joined the abolitionist cause. These three women were some of the earliest leaders in women's rights.

Education is another topic that complies with me. I've traveled teaching the people and youth of the nation to realize the wrong of the country to promise liberty and rights but not stay true when it comes to certain groups of people. Religious guidance was also an influence in my teaching and training throughout my anti-slavery movement.