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I would like well to hear
your Tyrtaean
speeches,
of that rare quality that,
-nonresistant as you are -
drives men to break heads.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Letter to May
26 August 1856 |
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Rev.
Samuel J. May |
Samuel J. May was born in Boston, and came to Syracuse in 1845 as pastor of
the (Unitarian) Church of the Messiah. His congregation, now named May Memorial
Unitarian Universalist Society, still exist in Syracuse, and maintains a website
at
www.rway.com/mmuus.
 Active in the
underground railroad in Boston and Syracuse, May was an agent for various
anti-slavery societies. In Syracuse he was involved in many of the areas most
important anti-slavery events, including the 1851
Rescue of Jerry. May was
also an early advocate of women's rights. His 1846 sermon on the subject was
later reprinted as Woman's Rights Pamphlet #1.
The University of Michigan Digital Library provides a searchable version of
May's Some
Recollections on Our Anti-Slavery Struggle.
NY History Net is exploring the development of a full-blown May website.
Suggestions for content are welcome at <webmaster@nyhistory.com>.
Tyr was the Norse god of battles.
Images of May (and the
letter from Emerson) are from his papers found in the
Anti-Slavery
Collection in the Carl A. Kroch Library at Cornell University.
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