Passionate Liberator: Theodore Dwight Weld and the Dilemma of Reform

by Robert H. Abzug

Recounts Weld's intense childhood, his stormy religious conversion, his entry into the world of reform, and finally, his rejection of public life.

384 pages, Paperback

First published October 23, 1980

Reviews

[Steve Smits · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too little has been written about Weld, one of the leading abolitionists. He truly was a giant among those in the movement. It was perhaps his shunning of the public limelight that has him less recognized by historians.

The author takes a psychoanalytical approach to understanding the motives of Weld. This is valid enough, but didn't appeal so much to me. Weld's shift from focus on a broad range of reform issues, such as temperance and Finney-like evangelism is an important milestone that could have received more attention. While Weld disagreed with the Garrisonians on including of women's rights on their platform, Weld was very clearly supportive of the pioneering emphasis advanced by the Grimke sisters, Sarah and his wife Angelina.

All that said, Abzug's unraveling of Weld's withdrawal in the 1840's from his overt activism, at least the intensity he formerly exhibited, was well-described, as are his later years from Eagleswood on.

I very much liked Benjamin Thomas's "Theodore Weld, Crusader for Freedom" and Gerda Lerner's "The Grimke Sisters of South Carolina".

[Eric Targe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very well written account of this great abolitionist. Azbug does not simply inform the reader of the events of Weld’s life but take the reader on a journey through the psychology of the man, looking at how the many traumas of his childhood through adulthood formed the paths he chose. Welds life is worthy of examination by all. The end of his theological journey is a disappointing departure from orthodoxy, but it is worth noting the trail that brought him to lukewarm religion and then a temporary lukewarm attitude toward abolition in his later years.