author
Samuel May
1810–1899
A Unitarian minister turned outspoken reformer, he spent much of the 19th century pushing New England closer to the causes of abolition, temperance, and civic reform. His life links the pulpit, the antislavery lecture circuit, and public service in a way that feels unusually vivid and direct.
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About the author
Born in Boston in 1810, he studied at Harvard College and then Harvard Divinity School before being ordained in 1834 as minister of the Unitarian church in Leicester, Massachusetts. Even early in his ministry, he was drawn toward public reform as well as parish life.
He became closely identified with the antislavery movement, serving as an agent and later secretary of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. Sources on his papers and later collections also connect him with the wider reform culture of his time, including temperance work and service in the Massachusetts legislature after his retirement from the ministry.
May also wrote and edited historical and biographical works, including material connected with Samuel Joseph May, helping preserve the memory of one generation of reformers for the next. He died in 1899, leaving behind the record of a minister who moved steadily from local church leadership into broader public activism.