author
Samuel May
1810–1899
A Unitarian minister and committed abolitionist, he spent decades pushing antislavery work into public life in Massachusetts. He also wrote memoir and historical material that helps preserve the story of the reform movements around him.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Boston in 1810, Samuel May Jr. studied at Harvard and Harvard Divinity School before entering the Unitarian ministry. He served for many years in Leicester, Massachusetts, and became known for tying his religious work to reform, especially the fight against slavery.
He was active in antislavery organizing in Massachusetts, worked with abolitionist societies, and took part in efforts to protect freedom seekers. Later sources on his papers and public career also show him as a writer and editor whose work helped document the lives and causes of leading reformers of his time.
May died in 1899. Remembered as both a minister and a reformer, he stands out as one of the many nineteenth-century figures who treated moral conviction as something that should shape public action.