Amos A. (Augustus) Phelps (1805–1847) was an American minister and

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

Early life

He was born in

Farmington, Connecticut Farmington is a town in Hartford County in the Farmington Valley area of central Connecticut in the United States. The population was 26,712 at the 2020 census. It sits 10 miles west of Hartford at the hub of major I-84 interchanges, 20 miles ...

. His mother was Clarissa Bodwell Phelps Tryon and his father was Amos Phelps of Avon, Connecticut.

Career

Phelps graduated from Yale College in 1826 and

Yale Divinity School Yale Divinity School (YDS) is one of the twelve graduate and professional schools of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Congregationalist theological education was the motivation at the founding of Yale, and the professional school has ...

in 1830. After serving as a pastor in Congregational churches in Hopkinton and Boston, Massachusetts, he became an agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1834. From 1837 to 1839, he served as the General Agent of the

Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society The Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, headquartered in Boston, was organized as an auxiliary of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1835. Its roots were in the New England Anti-Slavery Society, organized by William Lloyd Garrison, editor of ' ...

. In 1839, he left the

and became one of the founding members of the Massachusetts Abolition Society, formed by abolitionists who disagreed with

William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was a prominent American Christian, abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known for his widely read antislavery newspaper '' The Liberator'', which he foun ...

's progressive, and sometimes radical, politics. In 1840, he also joined forces with a group that formed the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. He died on July 27, 1847.

Personal life

He married Charlotte Brown Phelps, and they had a son Edward. Charlotte died in 1838. He then married Caroline Little in 1839 and they had a daughter, Lucy in 1841. Caroline died some time between 1841 and 1844. Phelps then married Caroline's sister, Lucy Little in 1844. Phelps and Lucy had two daughters together.

References

External links

Amos A. Phelps Correspondence (1821–1847) of Boston Public Library on Internet Archive
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Phelps, Amos Yale Divinity School alumni 1805 births 1847 deaths American abolitionists People from Boston People from Farmington, Connecticut