author
active 1787-1834 Jesse Torrey
A physician and reform-minded writer from the early United States, he is best remembered for gathering firsthand accounts of slavery and kidnapping at a time when such testimony was rarely preserved. His work blends eyewitness reporting, moral urgency, and a strong belief that books could help improve society.
1 Audiobook
American Slave Trade Or, An Account of the Manner in which the Slave Dealers take Free People from some of the United States of America, and carry them away, and sell them as Slaves in other of the States; and of the horrible Cruelties practised in the carrying on of this most infamous Traffic
by active 1787-1834 Jesse Torrey
About the author
Born in 1787, Jesse Torrey Jr. was a Philadelphia physician, writer, and early antislavery advocate. He is best known for A Portraiture of Domestic Slavery in the United States (1817), a book that collected firsthand narratives from African Americans along with eyewitness accounts from white observers, giving readers a direct view of slavery and kidnapping in the young republic.
Torrey wrote with the energy of a reformer. Alongside his antislavery work, he also produced books for young readers and educational projects, showing a broad interest in moral instruction and public learning. His writing suggests a man who believed printed words could shape character as well as public debate.
He was born on May 25, 1787, and is generally believed to have died around 1834. Although he is not as widely known today as some later abolitionist writers, his work stands out as an early effort to document injustice through collected testimony and personal observation.