author
James L. (James Loring) Baker
1813–1886
An American businessman and pamphleteer of the mid-19th century, he wrote brief, forceful works on trade policy and slavery during one of the most heated periods in U.S. history. His surviving publications suggest a writer engaged with the political and economic arguments of his day.
1 Audiobook
Slavery
by James L. (James Loring) Baker
About the author
Born in Boston in 1813 and later dying in Minneapolis in 1886, he appears in historical and genealogical records as James Loring Baker. Those records also connect him to a Massachusetts family background and help place the broad outline of his life.
As a writer, he is best known for short nonfiction works rather than novels. Surviving titles linked to him include Slavery and Exports and Imports, as Showing the Relative Advancement of Every Nation in Wealth, Strength, and Independence, which point to his interest in public debate, economics, and national policy.
Although not a widely documented literary figure today, his work offers a window into the arguments and anxieties of antebellum America. Readers coming to his writing now will likely find it most valuable as historical commentary from a businessman-author writing in the language of his own era.