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Samuel Cornish Bio
(1795-1858)
Samuel Cornish was an early Presbyterian minister and a prominent
abolitionist. A conservative in religious and social views, he lost
influence in the early 1840s as many black leaders became more militant,
although he remained a respected figure. In addition, Cornish was an
important newspaper editor, a co-founder of Freedom's Journal,
the first black newspaper, and later editor of the Colored American.
In 1827 Cornish joined John Russworm in editing Freedom's
Journal, which first appeared on March 16. Russworm assumed sole
editorial control on September 24, 1827, but Cornish took over the paper
in 1829 when Russworm was forced to resign because of his support of the
colonization movement. After a two-month hiatus, Cornish continued the
paper for less than a year under the name The Rights of All. For
a few months in 1832 he served as pastor of the First African
Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, founded by John Gloucester. Cornish
further devoted his energies to eradicating the stain of slavery; he
joined William Lloyd Garrison in the founding of the American
Anti-Slavery Society in 1833, and helped found a local branch of the New
York Anti-Slavery Society. Cornish also joined the American and Foreign
Anti-Slavery Society, and spent at least nine years on its executive
committee. He was an active member of the American Missionary Society,
which incorporated the black Union Missionary Society Cornish had helped
found. He was on the AMA's executive committee for three years and
served as its vice-president.
In 1837 Cornish again became a newspaper editor, this
time of the Colored American, a paper subsidized by noted white
abolitionist Arthur Tappan. His associate on the paper was Philip A.
Bell, later a noted California newspaper editor. Cornish held this post
until the middle of 1839. Cornish was more conservative in his views
than many of his younger contemporaries. For example, in an 1837
editorial he was part of a minority opposing the use of demonstrations
and force to resist enforcement of the fugitive slave laws. This
controversial opinion led to his estrangement from David Ruggles and the
New York Committee of Vigilance, an organization dedicated to helping
fugitive slaves.
After his wife died in 1844, Cornish moved his family
back to New York City where he organized Emmanuel Church which he led
until 1847. His older daughter died in 1846, and his younger daughter
became ill in 1851 and died insane in 1855. In this year, Cornish, in
very poor health himself, moved to Brooklyn, where he died in 1858.
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John B. Russwurm Bio
(1799-1851)
John B. Russwurm was born in Jamaica. His mother was an African
prisoner-of-war who was raped by a white man--John's father. He was
raised in Maine. His father's widow later insisted that he take the
family surname, Russwurm. She sent him to Canada, paid for his
preparatory education, and financed his education through Bowdoin
College. He graduated from Bowdoin in 1826. He was the second Black to
be permitted to graduate from an American college. (Edward A. Jones
graduated from Amherst a few days earlier.)
Believing his people could never gain the rights of citizenship in
America, in 1829, Russwurm, moved to Liberia, Africa. He reasoned
that the newly started nation would need educated people to help it
survive. He was first the superintendent of schools and later governor
of the Maryland Colony in Liberia.
. In Liberia, he served as superintendent of education, edited the Liberia
Herald, became governor of the county of Maryland, and recruited
American blacks to settle there.
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updated 4 November 2007 |
