author
Cydnor Bailey Tompkins
1810–1862
Best known as an Ohio lawyer, congressman, and outspoken antislavery speaker, he also left behind a published address that captures the political urgency of the years before the Civil War. His life joined public service with the kind of argument-driven writing that still reads as part of America’s long debate over freedom and power.
1 Audiobook
Slavery: What it was, what it has done, what it intends to do Speech of Hon. Cydnor B. Tompkins, of Ohio
by Cydnor Bailey Tompkins
About the author
Born in Belmont County, Ohio, in 1810, he moved to Morgan County in 1831, graduated from Ohio University in 1835, studied law, and began practicing in McConnelsville in 1837. He went on to serve in the Ohio House of Representatives and later represented Ohio in the U.S. House from 1857 to 1861.
Alongside his legal and political work, he is remembered by readers today for a printed speech, Slavery: What it was, what it has done, what it intends to do. That surviving work links him to the fierce national arguments over slavery in the years just before the Civil War and helps explain why his name still appears in historical and digital library collections.
He died in McConnelsville in 1862. While he is not chiefly known as a literary figure, his published speech gives modern audiences a direct window into the rhetoric, convictions, and public debates of his era.