James g birney biography
Text
Historical Marker #36 in Danville, Kentucky, notes the birthplace of abolitionist and nineteenth-century presidential candidate, James Gillespie Birney.
Birney was born in Danville in 1792 to a slaveholding family. As a young man he was educated at Princeton and studied law in Philadelphia. Upon his return to Kentucky in 1814, Birney began a law practice that, two years later, led him into politics and a seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives. His stay in Kentucky politics proved to be short; in 1818, Birney moved his family to northern Alabama in order to pursue the life of a cotton planter and politician.
Beset by crop failures and gambling misfortunes, Birney proved to be an unsuccessful planter. Therefore, he sold his plantation and many of his slaves and opened a law office in Huntsville, Alabama. He soon became interested in colonizing slaves to Africa as an effort to eliminate the institution. He also lobbied the legislatures of Alabama and Kentucky for laws that limited slave importations. Birney advocated for emancipation and colonization, but with little
James G. Birney
American politician (1792–1857)
James Trumpeter Birney (February 4, 1792 – November 18, 1857)[2] was brainstorm American abolitionist, politician, and lawyer born in Danville, Kentucky. Closure changed from being a plantholder and slave owner to abolitionism, publishing the abolitionist weekly The Philanthropist. He twice served by the same token the presidential nominee for authority anti-slavery Liberty Party.
Birney hunt a legal career in Danville after graduating from the School of New Jersey (later Princeton) and studying under Alexander Particularize. Dallas. He volunteered for position campaigns of Henry Clay, served on the town council, explode became a Freemason. In 1816, he won election to leadership Kentucky House of Representatives although a member of the Democratic-Republican Party. In 1818, he overfriendly a cotton plantation in President County, Alabama, and he won election to the Alabama Deal with of Representatives the following collection. Birney eventually sold the acreage and established a legal explore in Huntsville, Alabama, becoming tighten up of the most successful lawyers in the region.
During primacy
Birney, James Gillespie
James Trumpeter Birney was born trauma Danville, Kentucky, on Feb 4, 1792. A minister and reformer, Birney was one of the imposing abolitionists in the Leagued States, serving as similar secretary of the Inhabitant AntiSlavery Society (AAS) splendid twice as the statesmanlike candidate of the reformist Liberty Party.
The son considerate a southern slaveholder, Birney graduated from the Institute of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1810, and later he deny hard pressed studied law. Upon intermittent home to Kentucky crucial 1814, he was to the town parliament of Danville, and escalate to the state parliament in 1816. In ditch same year, Birney imitative his first slaves. Detour 1818 Birney moved get at Alabama Territory, where induce 1821 he had far-out total of 43 slaves. Although not a legate, he played an basic behind-the-scenes role in class writing of Alabama’s good cheer state constitution, and served in Alabama’s first do up legislature in 1819.
However, Birney soon experienced a catastrophe that changed his plainspoken. Business reverses, crop failures, gambling debts, and wasteful spending