Samuel J. (Samuel Joseph) May

Born in Boston on September 12, 1797, Samuel Joseph May became a Unitarian minister and one of the most active reformers of his era. He studied at Harvard and Harvard Divinity School, then served congregations in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York.

May is best known for his work against slavery, but his reform efforts reached further. He supported women's rights, peace activism, and public education, and he stood by Prudence Crandall when her school for Black girls in Canterbury, Connecticut, came under attack. Later, in Syracuse, he continued preaching and organizing for social change.

He died on July 1, 1871, in Syracuse, New York. His memoir of the antislavery movement, Some Recollections of Our Antislavery Conflict, remains one of the most direct firsthand accounts of that long fight.