Bailey, Gamaliel

Bailey, Gamaliel,

1807–59, American abolitionist editor, b. Mt. Holly, N.J. In 1837 he succeeded James Birney as editor and publisher of the Philanthropist at Cincinnati. Three times his office was attacked by proslavery mobs, and once the entire establishment was destroyed. From 1847 until his death Bailey ably edited the influential National Era, an abolitionist weekly published in Washington, D.C. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin first appeared in that journal.

Bailey, Gamaliel

(1807–59) physician, journalist, abolitionist; born in Mount Holly, N.J. In his early years he worked as a physician, but his true calling was abolitionism. He and James G. Birney edited the Cincinnati Philanthropist (1836)—the first anti-slavery organ in the West. He later founded a daily, the Herald (1843). He moved to Washington, D.C., to serve as editor-in-chief of the National Era (1847–59), the periodical of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. Tolerant and cool-headed, he stood up to mobs to defend his abolitionist publications, exerting a wide moral and political influence for the anti-slavery movement.