author
Jonathan Blanchard
1811–1892
A fiery preacher and reformer, he spent his life tying Christian faith to public causes like abolition, education, and moral reform. He is best remembered as a founder and first president of Wheaton College and as one of the most outspoken antislavery voices of his era.
1 Audiobook
Secret Societies: A Discussion of Their Character and Claims
by David Macdill, Edward Beecher, Jonathan Blanchard
About the author
Born in Vermont in 1811, Jonathan Blanchard became an American pastor, educator, and social reformer whose career was shaped by strong evangelical convictions. He studied at Middlebury College and then at Andover Theological Seminary, where his opposition to slavery became a defining part of his public life.
Blanchard worked as an antislavery lecturer and later served as a minister and college leader. He was president of Knox College before moving to Illinois, where he helped found Wheaton College and served as its first president from 1860 to 1882. Alongside his work in education, he spoke and wrote energetically on abolition and other reform causes.
He died in 1892, but his legacy has remained closely tied to Wheaton College and to the wider world of nineteenth-century religious reform. For listeners today, he stands out as a figure who saw preaching, teaching, and public activism as parts of the same calling.