Home / Full timeline / Mixed-race abolitionist Jeremiah Burke Sanderson makes his first public address in Nantucket, Massachusetts.
Mixed-race abolitionist Jeremiah Burke Sanderson makes his first public address in Nantucket, Massachusetts.
1841 (Feb 1)
Jeremiah Burke Sanderson (1821-1875) made his first public address at an abolitionists meeting in Nantucket, Massachusetts. (Frederick Douglass also gave his first public speech there.) Throughout the 1840s, the Scottish and African-blooded Sanderson, born and educated in New Bedford, Massachusetts, spoke out against slavery in his state as well as in New York, where, in 1853, he joined the National Council of the National Colored Convention. Although Sanderson did not promote immigration of Blacks abroad, he did support the massive migration of Blacks to California in 1854 by going there himself. There, he helped many Black religious, social, political, and educational organizations increase their status in American society. Sanderson was elected to the African Methodist Episcopal church positions of secretary of the California conference and state delegate to the church's national conference, but died in a train accident on August 19, 1875, before he was able to serve.
References:
- • Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.