author
Isaac I. Tibbals
A little-known 19th-century abolitionist voice, remembered today for helping defend the anti-slavery movement in print. His surviving work offers a direct window into local activism in Meriden, Connecticut, during one of the most heated moral debates in American history.
1 Audiobook
An apology for abolitionists addressed by the anti-slavery society of Meriden, Conn., to their fellow citizens
by Conn. Anti-slavery Society of Meriden, Philo Pratt, Isaac I. Tibbals, Walter Webb
About the author
Very little biographical information about Isaac I. Tibbals is readily confirmed online, but he is clearly connected to the anti-slavery movement in Connecticut in the 1830s. He is credited alongside Philo Pratt and Walter Webb on An Apology for Abolitionists, a work issued by the Anti-Slavery Society of Meriden, Connecticut and preserved by Project Gutenberg.
Archival material also links him to organizing activity in Meriden. A surviving letter associated with Isaac Tibbals and other signers discusses the formation of an antislavery society there, suggesting that he was not only a writer but an active participant in local abolitionist efforts.
What makes Tibbals interesting now is precisely how fragmentary the record is. Even with only a small paper trail, his name remains attached to a forceful defense of abolitionism, and that gives his work value as a firsthand piece of reform history from antebellum New England.