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Samuel Joseph May And...
Born into Boston’s elite and trained at Harvard University as a Unitarian minister, Samuel Joseph May rejected his upbringing to become a central figure in the antislavery and antebellum reform movements. With this intellectual biography, Donald Yacovone has written the first modern account of May’s life. May’s friendships with William Ellery Channing, William Lloyd Garrison, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, and his work in the major crusades of his era make his life a virtual history of antebellum religion and reform. Though his ideals threatened his clerical career and his family relationships, he feverishly devoted his life to the abolitionist, peace, and temperance movements, education reform, and women’s rights. The Liberal Persuasion was an intellectual movement that arose out of New England during the golden age of the Unitarian faith. May was the leading representative of this humanist ideology that rejected slavery and racial prejudice, advanced free religious inquiry, promoted republicanism and a generous interpretation of civil liberties, supported the emancipation of women, and defended the social and political rights of the working classes.
300 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1991
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 2, 2013
Recommended for people who wondered why the "Little Women" (Louisa May Alcott) never went to church, rarely mentioned God except as a "divine example", and placed such a focus on good works. Also recommended for those wanting to know more about the roots of the Unitarian faith.
As far as I can tell, I am the first to review this book, which is an obscure academic treatise about Samuel Joseph May, the theology of his time, and how this theology intersected with the abolitionist movement as well as other social issues near the time of the Civil War.
Why did I pick this book up? Because I had been reading "Marmee and Louisa," a relatively new biography of Louisa May Alcott focusing on her relationship with the maternal side of her family. "Marmee" was a May, and this book detailed how Louisa, who knew much poverty and little wealth, was able to depict scenes of relative wealth and power. The answer lay in her May family history; many of the scenes in her books, especially the opening of Little Women that describes how their father lost all of his fortune, come straight out of the May family chronicles.
And Samuel Joseph May (Marmee's older brother) fairly leaped off the pages of "Marmee and Louisa". May was an social and educational reformer and philanthropist who, among other things, helped to promote and explain the Unitarian faith. His writings (start here with http://www-distance.syr.edu/sammaybel...) explain the Unitarian faith in ways that almost completely match the theology that serves as the background of "Little Women" and "Little Men."
I got curious and wanted to know more...and read this book. In the first half, the author gives some biographical details about May, and fits his theology into the larger picture of the theology of his time, explaining the connection with the New England Transcendalists, Unitarians, and emerging ideas of Liberal Reform in Christianity. In the second half, the author details how May grappled--in full view of the public-- with the big issues of his time: religious reform, abolitionism, women's rights, and war.
May comes out as a vastly underappreciated thinker and mover in American history, as well as a truly good man.
As far as I can tell, I am the first to review this book, which is an obscure academic treatise about Samuel Joseph May, the theology of his time, and how this theology intersected with the abolitionist movement as well as other social issues near the time of the Civil War.
Why did I pick this book up? Because I had been reading "Marmee and Louisa," a relatively new biography of Louisa May Alcott focusing on her relationship with the maternal side of her family. "Marmee" was a May, and this book detailed how Louisa, who knew much poverty and little wealth, was able to depict scenes of relative wealth and power. The answer lay in her May family history; many of the scenes in her books, especially the opening of Little Women that describes how their father lost all of his fortune, come straight out of the May family chronicles.
And Samuel Joseph May (Marmee's older brother) fairly leaped off the pages of "Marmee and Louisa". May was an social and educational reformer and philanthropist who, among other things, helped to promote and explain the Unitarian faith. His writings (start here with http://www-distance.syr.edu/sammaybel...) explain the Unitarian faith in ways that almost completely match the theology that serves as the background of "Little Women" and "Little Men."
I got curious and wanted to know more...and read this book. In the first half, the author gives some biographical details about May, and fits his theology into the larger picture of the theology of his time, explaining the connection with the New England Transcendalists, Unitarians, and emerging ideas of Liberal Reform in Christianity. In the second half, the author details how May grappled--in full view of the public-- with the big issues of his time: religious reform, abolitionism, women's rights, and war.
May comes out as a vastly underappreciated thinker and mover in American history, as well as a truly good man.
Displaying 1 of 1 review