James Gillespie Birney

James Gillespie Birney , 1792-1857, American abolitionist, b. Danville, Ky. He practiced law at Danville from 1814 to 1818, before he moved to Alabama, where he served one term in the state legislature. Briefly (1832-34) an agent of the American Colonization Society before becoming an abolitionist, he returned (1833) to Kentucky, freed (1834) his inherited slaves, and helped organize (1835) the Kentucky Anti-Slavery Society. In 1837 he became executive secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society, and he was a vice president of the World's Anti-Slavery Convention at London in 1840. In contrast to William Lloyd Garrison, Birney constantly advocated political action. He became the acknowledged leader of like-minded abolitionists who, forming the Liberty party , nominated him for the presidency in 1840 and 1844. An injury sustained in 1845 took him out of public life.

Bibliography: See his letters (ed. by D. L. Dumond, 1938); biographies by W. Birney (1969) and B. Fladeland (1955, repr. 1969).

Birney, James Gillespie (1792–1857), early Southern antislavery leader, set forth his beliefs in a Letter on the Political Obligations of Abolitionists (1839), and was later nominated for the presidency by the Liberty party.⧫ His Letters have been published (2 vols., 1938).