James Redpath (August 24, 1833 in

Berwick upon Tweed Berwick-upon-Tweed (), sometimes known as Berwick-on-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, and the northernmost town in England. The 2011 United Kingdom census recor ...

, England – February 10, 1891, in

New York, New York New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on New York Harbor, one of the world's largest natural harb ...

) was an American

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and anti-slavery activist.

Life

In 1848 or 1849, Redpath and his family emigrated from Scotland to a farm near

Kalamazoo, Michigan Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 73,598. It is the principal city of the Kalamazoo–Portage metropolitan are ...

. He worked as a printer in Kalamazoo and

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

, where he wrote antislavery articles under the pseudonym "Berwick." Then he worked as a reporter for

Horace Greeley Horace Greeley (February 3, 1811 – November 29, 1872) was an American newspaper editor and publisher who was the founder and newspaper editor, editor of the ''New-York Tribune''. Long active in politics, he served briefly as a congres ...

's ''

New-York Tribune The ''New-York Tribune'' (from 1914: ''New York Tribune'') was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s ...

''. An early assignment at the ''Tribune'' involved compiling "Facts of Slavery", a regular series of articles gathered from Southern newspaper exchanges. Beginning in March 1854, he traveled in the

American South The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is census regions United States Census Bureau. It is between the Atlantic Ocean and the ...

to examine slavery for himself, interviewing slaves and collecting material. It appeared early in 1859 as '' The Roving Editor: or, Talks with Slaves in the Southern States'', dedicated to "Old Hero" Captain

John Brown John Brown most often refers to: *John Brown (abolitionist) (1800–1859), American who led an anti-slavery raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in 1859 John Brown or Johnny Brown may also refer to: Academia * John Brown (educator) (1763–1842), Ir ...

. The book's production costs were covered by prominent antislavery philanthropist

Gerrit Smith Gerrit Smith (March 6, 1797 – December 28, 1874), also spelled Gerritt Smith, was an American social reformer, abolitionist, businessman, public intellectual, and philanthropist. Married to Ann Carroll Fitzhugh, Smith was a candidate for P ...

. In 1855, Redpath moved to the Kansas-Missouri border and reported for a

Free Soil The Free Soil Party, also called the Free Democratic Party or the Free Democracy, was a political party in the United States from 1848 to 1854, when it merged into the Republican Party. The party was focused on opposing the expansion of slav ...

newspaper, the '' Missouri Democrat'', on the dispute over slavery in

Kansas Territory The Territory of Kansas was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until January 29, 1861, when the eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the United States, Union as the Slave and ...

. For the next three years, he was active in Kansas affairs, engaging in politics, writing dispatches, securing support in New England for

settlers, and writing poetry about Kansas. In 1856, he interviewed John Brown just days after the massacre at Pottawatomie Creek. Redpath and Brown shared the same abolitionist views, and he became Brown's most fervent publicist. In addition to his abolitionist views, he also advocated

reparations for slavery Reparations for slavery are reparations for victims of slavery. Reparations can take many forms, including financial compensation, legal remedy of damages, public apology and guarantees of non-repetition. Victims of slavery can refer to hist ...

. Redpath returned east from Kansas in July 1858. During the Pike's Peak Gold Rush of 1859, he and fellow journalist Richard J. Hinton prepared a guidebook for gold prospectors, ''Hand-Book to Kansas Territory and the Rocky Mountains' Gold Region.'' It was hoped that the book would spur a greater number of Free Soil immigrants to settle in Kansas Territory, which included part of what later became

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. In 1858, Brown encouraged Redpath to move to Boston to help rally support for his plan for a Southern slave insurrection. After the failure of

John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was an effort by abolitionist John Brown, from October 16th to 18th, 1859, to initiate a slave revolt in Southern states by taking over the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (since 1863, We ...

(1859), Redpath wrote the first, and highly sympathetic, biography of the executed abolitionist, ''The Public Life of Capt. John Brown'' (1860). Announced on December 3, 1859, the day after Brown's execution, according to an advertisement from the publisher Thayer & Eldridge "a liberal percentage" of the profits were for Brown's family. In 1860, Redpath toured

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

as a reporter and returned to the United States as the official Haitian lobbyist for diplomatic recognition, which he secured within two years. He simultaneously served as director of Haiti's campaign to attract free black emigrants from the United States and Canada. John Brown Jr. worked under him in 1860. His ''Guide to Hayti'' (1860), available on the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

, is an anthology of articles by various authors on a wide range of Haitian subjects. Redpath hoped that the immigration of skilled blacks to Haiti would elevate conditions there and dispel racial prejudice in the United States. After the Civil War, he abandoned his ideas when he recognized that North American blacks preferred to remain at home. In 1863 and 1864, following the failure of Redpath's Boston publishers Thayer & Eldridge, he set up his own firm and began the series "Books for the Times," which included

William Wells Brown William Wells Brown (November 6, 1814 – November 6, 1884) was an American abolitionist, novelist, playwright, and historian. Born into slavery near Mount Sterling, Kentucky, Brown escaped to Ohio in 1834 at the age of 19. He settled in Boston, ...

's ''The Black Man'', John R. Beard's ''Toussaint L'Ouverture'', and

Louisa May Alcott Louisa May Alcott (; November 29, 1832March 6, 1888) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet best known for writing the novel ''Little Women'' (1868) and its sequels ''Good Wives'' (1869), ''Little Men'' (1871), and ''Jo's Boys'' ...

's '' Hospital Sketches''. In 1864, he published another series of cheap paperbound books, titled "Books for the Campfires", principally intended for distribution to Union Army soldiers. Later that year he abandoned publishing to serve as a war correspondent with the armies of

George Henry Thomas George Henry Thomas (July 31, 1816March 28, 1870) was an American general in the Union Army during the American Civil War and one of the principal commanders in the Western Theater. Thomas served in the Mexican–American War, and despite be ...

and

William Tecumseh Sherman William Tecumseh Sherman ( ; February 8, 1820February 14, 1891) was an American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. He served as a General officer, general in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–1865), earning recognit ...

in Georgia and South Carolina. In February 1865, federal military authorities appointed him the first superintendent of public schools in the

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...

, region. He soon had more than 100 instructors at work teaching 3,500 African-American and white students. He also founded an orphan asylum. In May 1865 in Charleston, Redpath organized what has been called the first-ever

Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It is observed on the last Monday of May. It i ...

service, to honor buried Union Army dead there. In 2014, however, this designation was disputed by Bellware and Gardiner in ''The Genesis of the Memorial Day Holiday in America''. They point out that it was actually a cemetery dedication, not meant to be repeated annually and not unlike the one that took place at

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Gettysburg (; ) is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Adams County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the borough had a population of 7,106 people. Gettysburg was the site of ...

, in 1863, that debuted Lincoln's famous address.

David Blight David William Blight (born 1949) is the Sterling Professor of History, of African American Studies, and of American Studies and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. Previous ...

, the main proponent of this thesis, confessed that he has no evidence that this cemetery dedication influenced General Logan to inaugurate the annual holiday. Bellware and Gardiner credit

Mary Ann Williams Mary Ann Williams (also known as Mrs. Charles J. Williams) (10 August 1821 – 15 April 1874) was an American woman who was the first proponent for Memorial Day, an annual holiday to decorate graves of soldiers. Biography Antebellum years ...

and the Ladies Memorial Association of

Columbus, Georgia Columbus is a consolidated city-county located on the west-central border of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. Columbus lies on the Chattahoochee River directly across from Phenix City, Alabama. It is the county seat of Muscogee ...

, as the true originators of the holiday, though this is only one of many precedents from 1865-66 for the holiday, known for a time as "Decoration Day." His reputation as a radical abolitionist and his tentative steps toward integrating South Carolina's schools caused worried military officials to replace Redpath and remove an irritation to Southern-born president

Andrew Johnson Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808July 31, 1875) was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. The 16th vice president, he assumed the presidency following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was a South ...

Boston Lyceum Bureau

In 1868, Redpath started one of the first professional lecturing bureaus in the country, the Boston Lyceum Bureau. Later known as the Redpath Bureau, it supplied speakers and performers for

lyceum The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies among countries; usually it is a type of secondary school. Basic science and some introduction to ...

s all across the country. It represented figures such as

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

Julia Ward Howe Julia Ward Howe ( ; May 27, 1819 – October 17, 1910) was an American author and poet, known for writing the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" as new lyrics to an existing song, and the original 1870 pacifist Mothers' Day Proclamation. She w ...

Charles Sumner Charles Sumner (January 6, 1811March 11, 1874) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1851 until his death in 1874. Before and during the American Civil War, he was a leading American ...

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionism, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist movement of th ...

Wendell Phillips Wendell Phillips (November 29, 1811 – February 2, 1884) was an American abolitionist, labor reformer, temperance activist, advocate for Native Americans, orator, and attorney. According to George Lewis Ruffin, a black attorney, Phillip ...

Henry Ward Beecher Henry Ward Beecher (June 24, 1813 – March 8, 1887) was an American Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, and speaker, known for his support of the Abolitionism, abolition of slavery, his emphasis on God's love, and his 1875 adultery ...

, Susan B. Anthony, Nella Brown Pond,

Lew Wallace Lewis Wallace (April 10, 1827February 15, 1905) was an American lawyer, Union general in the American Civil War, governor of New Mexico Territory, politician, diplomat, artist, and author from Indiana. Among his novels and biographies, Walla ...

,''Crawfordsville Saturday Evening Journal'', September 18, 1886 and

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 14, 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. He was the most impor ...

. The Redpath Bureau became the most prominent and successful agency of its kind. Leland Powers, a faculty at the Bureau, established his own school after Redpath left. Redpath sold his interest in the Bureau in 1875 and lived alternately in Washington, D.C., and New York, when not traveling. At the end of the decade, his health declined but, in 1880–81, he reported on famine and the land war in western Ireland. Redpath was deeply affected by the extreme poverty of much of rural Ireland and he convinced his friend and fellow-abolitionist David Ross Locke to support

Irish nationalism Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of cult ...

by taking him up the

Galtee Mountains Galtymore or Galteemore () is a mountain in the province of Munster, Ireland. At , it is one of Ireland's highest mountains, being the 12th-highest on the Arderin list, and 14th-highest on the Vandeleur-Lynam list. Galtymore has the 4th-highe ...

to show him the condition of

smallholding A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technolo ...

mountain tenants. Redpath became an outspoken advocate of the cause of the

Land League The Irish National Land League ( Irish: ''Conradh na Talún''), also known as the Land League, was an Irish political organisation of the late 19th century which organised tenant farmers in their resistance to exactions of landowners. Its prima ...

and

Charles Stewart Parnell Charles Stewart Parnell (27 June 1846 – 6 October 1891) was an Irish nationalist politician who served as a Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom from 1875 to 1891, Leader of the Home Rule Leag ...

; pro-landlord commentators accused him of incitement to murder. Upon his return to the United States, he lectured on the lyceum circuit, wrote newspaper articles, and published ''Talks about Ireland'' and ''Redpath's Weekly'', both devoted to Irish causes. Redpath became editor of the ''

North American Review The ''North American Review'' (''NAR'') was the first literary magazine in the United States. It was founded in Boston in 1815 by journalist Nathan Hale (journalist), Nathan Hale and others. It was published continuously until 1940, after which i ...

'' in 1886. He died in 1891, shortly after being run over by a horse-drawn trolley in New York.

Works

* * * * * *

References

External links

"James Redpath", ''The American Experience''

"James Redpath", ''The Literary Encyclopedia''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Redpath, James 1833 births 1891 deaths British emigrants to the United States People from Berwick-upon-Tweed Journalists from Boston 19th century in Boston American abolitionists American book publishers (people) Bleeding Kansas John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry John Brown (abolitionist) People from Kalamazoo, Michigan American biographers American reparationists Activists from Detroit Journalists from Detroit

Life

Boston Lyceum Bureau

Works

References

Further reading (most recent first)

External links