Henry Clarke Wright
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Henry Clarke Wright (August 29, 1797 – August 16, 1870) was an American abolitionist,
pacifist Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...
,
anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...
and
feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
, for over two decades a controversial figure.


Early life

Clarke was born in Sharon, Connecticut, to father Seth Wright, a farmer and house-joiner (builder), and mother Miriam, a stay-at-home seamstress. When he was four, the family moved to the "western country" of Hartwick; it was a small, poor town, on the frontier in upstate New York. Working as an apprentice to a hat-maker in Norwich, New York, Wright experienced an emotional religious conversion during a revival meeting. He went on to study first under the local minister, and then at the Andover Theological Seminary in 1819 for four years. In 1823 he married a wealthy widow by the name of Elizabeth LeBreton Stickney, and moved to the upscale community of
Newburyport, Massachusetts Newburyport is a coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, northeast of Boston. The population was 18,289 at the 2020 census. A historic seaport with vibrant tourism industry, Newburyport includes part of Plum Island. The mo ...
.


Missionary work

Elizabeth Wright's interest in reform movements preceded Henry's own. She influenced Wright's decision to turn away from the parish ministry and enter the field of missionary work and reform in the 1830s. By this time he had adopted radical positions on two issues that were breaking up evangelical consensus. In the peace movement, he sided with radical pacifists who promoted an ethic of non-violence in all forms of conflict. Consequently, in 1836 he was appointed an agent of the American Peace Society. On anti-slavery, he sided with William Lloyd Garrison, promoting immediate abolition. On resigning from the American Peace Society, Wright was employed by Garrison and the
American Anti-Slavery Society The American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS; 1833–1870) was an abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan. Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave, had become a prominent abolitionist and was a key leader of this society ...
. He wrote columns for Garrison's newspaper, ''
The Liberator Liberator or The Liberators or ''variation'', may refer to: Literature * ''Liberators'' (novel), a 2009 novel by James Wesley Rawles * ''The Liberators'' (Suvorov book), a 1981 book by Victor Suvorov * ''The Liberators'' (comic book), a Britis ...
'', and gained respect among Northerners for moral beliefs contained within his call for non-violent immediate abolition. He also had special responsibility for organizing children's anti-slavery movements in towns across the Northeast. Later, his Newburyport home served as headquarters in summer 1837 for Angelina Grimké and
Sarah Grimké Sarah (born Sarai) is a biblical matriarch and prophetess, a major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character similarly, as that of a pi ...
when they began to create controversy over women speaking in public on behalf of the slaves. Wright was accused of encouraging the Grimkés to take too bold a stand on a woman's public role. He published two accounts of conversations he had with the Grimkés about extending his radical pacifist views to question all forms of domination in the family. At times he challenged whether coercive civil government was consistent with Christian faith. Critics of abolitionism used Wright as an example of the anarchy let loose by immoderate abolitionist attacks on traditional institutions. In September 1837 he was fired from the American Anti-Slavery Society for his radical views.


Support for women's rights

At a large meeting in Boston's Melodeon Hall on May 30, 1850, Wright was the first of four male speakers to endorse
Lucy Stone Lucy Stone (August 13, 1818 – October 18, 1893) was an American orator, abolitionist and suffragist who was a vocal advocate for and organizer promoting rights for women. In 1847, Stone became the first woman from Massachusetts to earn a colle ...
's proposal to call the first National Woman's Rights Convention. However, he did not attend any of the National Woman's Rights Conventions until 1859, when he introduced resolutions concerning married women's sexual rights. Wright was one of a few men who published books in the mid-nineteenth century advocating the wife's control of marital relations, his first being

''Marriage and Parentage; Or, The Reproductive Element in Man, as a Means to His Elevation and Happiness'', published in 1854, and his second

''The Unwelcome Child; Or, The Crime of an Undesigned and Undesired Child'', published in 1858. Both books promoted sexual responsibility within marriage and argued that because women bore the consequences of the sexual act, wives should have the right to decline sexual relations. In speeches during the summer of 1865, Wright was also an advocate of woman suffrage, and immediately after the Civil War was one of the early advocates of "universal suffrage," – extending the vote "without regard to color or to sex."


Natick Resolution essay

Wright is perhaps most famous for his radical Natick Resolution essay delivered to an audience in
Natick, Massachusetts Natick ( ) is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is near the center of the MetroWest region of Massachusetts, with a population of 37,006 at the 2020 census. west of Boston, Natick is part of the Greater Boston area. ...
in December 1859, stemming from an earlier speech delivered in May 1857 in front of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Still claiming to be faithful to non-resistance, Wright argued to the Society that true abolitionists should furnish arms for slave insurrection. Later, in his revised speech delivered in Natick, entitled ''Resistance to Slaveholders & the Right and Duty of Southern Slaves and Northern Freemen'', Wright argues
That it is the right and duty of the slaves to resist their masters, and the right and duty of the people of the North to incite them to resistance, and to aid them in it.
This militant antislavery article was published prior to
John Brown John Brown most often refers to: *John Brown (abolitionist) (1800–1859), American who led an anti-slavery raid in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859 John Brown or Johnny Brown may also refer to: Academia * John Brown (educator) (1763–1842), Ir ...
's execution in December 1859 in order to provoke support for the immediate abolitionist cause. Wright's rhetoric calls for complete resistance, in every form, to the institution of slavery. To him, John Brown symbolized the courage of such resistance. At one point, Wright compares Brown to Christ and finds Brown superior, writing
The sin of this nation, as it was asserted in that meeting, is to be taken away, not by Christ, but by John Brown. Christ, as represented by those who are called by his name, has proved a dead failure, as a power to free the slaves. John Brown is and will be a power far more efficient.
The Natick Resolution was well-recognized immediately prior to the American Civil War as a leading document of militant abolitionism. Clarke's former associates in the pacifist movement claimed he had abandoned his principles of non-violence. Henry Clarke Wright's radical notions and writings had a profound effect on abolitionism and the society in which he lived. After his militant writings, he spent the rest of his life as a freelance author and lecturer throughout the Midwest. Wright died in Pawtucket, Rhode Island in 1870. A beautiful monument was erected in his honor by abolitionist
Photius Fisk Photios I ( el, Φώτιος, ''Phōtios''; c. 810/820 – 6 February 893), also spelled PhotiusFr. Justin Taylor, essay "Canon Law in the Age of the Fathers" (published in Jordan Hite, T.O.R., & Daniel J. Ward, O.S.B., "Readings, Cases, Materia ...
. The monument is at Swan Point Cemetery, Providence, Rhode Island, and was erected in 1870.


Meeting with Henry Thoreau

An irritated
Henry Thoreau Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and hi ...
describes in his journal a visit of Wright to Concord and the Thoreau home in June 1853. He wrote, in part:
I was awfully pestered with his benignity; feared I should get greased all over with it past restoration... eaddressed me as "Henry" within one minute from the time I first laid eyes on him, and when I spoke, he said with drawling, sultry sympathy, "Henry, I know all you would say; I understand you perfectly; you need not explain anything to me;" and to another, "I am going to dive into Henry's innermost depths." I said, "I trust you will not strike your head against the bottom.
William Ellery Channing explained this reaction by characterizing reformer Wright as among "the travelling conversational Shylocks ... each the special savior on his own responsibility".


References


Further reading


Burnham, John C.; JSTOR
* Church History > Vol. 51, No. 3 (Sep., 1982), p. 359 * ''The Journal of American History'', Vol. 67, No. 3 (Dec., 1980), pp. 680–681 * https://www.jstor.org/stable/1889906 * Million, Joelle
''Woman's Voice, Woman's Place: Lucy Stone and the Birth of the Women's Rights Movement.''
Praeger, 2003. , pp. 47, 79, 104, 193, 203, 207, 252, 273, 289n. 4, 290n. 9, 303n. 8.
The Natick Resolution
described at Antislavery * Perry, Lewis; ''Childhood, Marriage, and Reform Henry Clarke Wright'', 1797-1870 * Wright, Henry Clarke (29 Aug. 1797-16 Aug. 1870), ''Abolitionists, Congregational Clergy, Pacifists'', 1375 words, from The American National Biography Online * Wright, Henry C.,

''Marriage and Parentage; Or, The Reproductive Element in Man, as a Means to His Elevation and Happiness'', 2d ed., 1854. * Wright, Henry C.

''The Unwelcome Child; Or, The Crime of an Undesigned and Undesired Child'', Boston: B. Marsh, 1858. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Henry Clarke 1797 births 1870 deaths Activists from New York (state) American abolitionists American anarchists American Christian pacifists American suffragists Anarcha-feminists Anarcho-pacifists Christian abolitionists Christian anarchists Individualist anarchists People from Hartwick, New York People from Newburyport, Massachusetts People from Norwich, New York People from Sharon, Connecticut