Pinner, Moritz

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PINNER, MORITZ

PINNER, MORITZ (1828–c. 1909), U.S. antislavery activist in the Civil War period. Pinner was born in Prussia. He was one of a handful of immigrant Jews who played a significant local role in the founding of the Republican Party and in the propaganda efforts against slavery which helped to bring on the Civil War. He participated in abolitionist activities in Missouri as early as 1856, served as editor of Republican antislavery papers in St. Louis and Kansas City, and was a member of state and national Republican conventions in 1860. Said to have been offered a diplomatic post by Lincoln, Pinner preferred military service, although the reports of his commissioned service are confused.

bibliography:

Kohler, in: ajhsp, 5 (1897), 152–3; Markens, ibid., 17, (1909), 139–41.

[Bertram Wallace Korn]