Jonathan Miller (abolitionist)

Jonathan Peckham Miller

Colonel Miller in 1840 at the World Anti-Slavery Convention
Born 1797
Randolph, Vermont, US
Died 1847 (aged 49–50)
Montpelier, Vermont, US
Nationality American
Education University of Vermont
Known for abolitionist and women's rights
Spouse(s) Sarah Arms Miller
Children Sarah Miller Keith

Colonel Jonathan Peckham Miller (1797–1847) was an American abolitionist. He served in Greece and returned to be a politician standing up for the rights of slaves and women. He and Sarah Arms Miller used their house as a station on the Underground Railroad.

Life

Miller was born in Randolph, Vermont in 1797 and he was undertaking military training during the War of 1812. He joined the US army in 1817 and attended college in Burlington. The Greek War of Independence from the Ottoman Empire began in 1821 and Miller answered their calls for assistance by travelling there in 1824. His bravery in guerrilla units earned him the rank of Colonel and he returned to America, but still remained loyal to the cause and he raised thousands of dollars and gathered relief supplies.[1] Miller supervised the transportation of these to Greece on behalf of supporters of the Greek cause in Boston and New York where they were shared amongst the war-torn Greeks. Miller returned to Vermont in 1827[2] and married Sarah Arms the following June. It was Jonathan who followed his new wife in sheltering slaves escaping via the "Underground Railroad". The Millers helped the railroad financially and they would ferry escapees using stagecoaches.[3]

Isaac Crewdson (Beaconite) writer Samuel Jackman Prescod - Barbadian Journalist William Morgan from Birmingham William Forster - Quaker leader George Stacey - Quaker leader William Forster - Anti-Slavery ambassador John Burnet -Abolitionist Speaker William Knibb -Missionary to Jamaica Joseph Ketley from Guyana George Thompson - UK & US abolitionist J. Harfield Tredgold - British South African (secretary) Josiah Forster - Quaker leader Samuel Gurney - the Banker's Banker Sir John Eardley-Wilmot Dr Stephen Lushington - MP and Judge Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton James Gillespie Birney - American John Beaumont George Bradburn - Massachusetts politician George William Alexander - Banker and Treasurer Benjamin Godwin - Baptist activist Vice Admiral Moorson William Taylor William Taylor John Morrison GK Prince Josiah Conder Joseph Soul James Dean (abolitionist) John Keep - Ohio fund raiser Joseph Eaton Joseph Sturge - Organiser from Birmingham James Whitehorne George Bennett Richard Allen Stafford Allen William Leatham, banker William Beaumont Sir Edward Baines - Journalist Samuel Lucas Samuel Fox, Nottingham grocer Louis Celeste Lecesne Jonathan Backhouse Samuel Bowly William Dawes - Ohio fund raiser Robert Kaye Greville - Botanist Joseph Pease, railway pioneer M.M. Isambert (sic) Mary Clarkson -Thomas Clarkson's daughter in law William Tatum Saxe Bannister - Pamphleteer Richard Davis Webb - Irish Nathaniel Colver - American not known John Cropper - Most generous Liverpudlian Thomas Scales William James William Wilson Thomas Swan Edward Steane from Camberwell William Brock Edward Baldwin Jonathon Miller Capt. Charles Stuart from Jamaica Sir John Jeremie - Judge Charles Stovel - Baptist Richard Peek, ex-Sheriff of London John Sturge Elon Galusha Cyrus Pitt Grosvenor Rev. Isaac Bass Henry Sterry Peter Clare -; sec. of Literary & Phil. Soc. Manchester J.H. Johnson Thomas Price Joseph Reynolds Samuel Wheeler William Boultbee Daniel O'Connell - "The Liberator" William Fairbank John Woodmark William Smeal from Glasgow James Carlile - Irish Minister and educationalist Rev. Dr. Thomas Binney John Howard Hinton - Baptist minister John Angell James - clergyman Joseph Cooper Dr. Richard Robert Madden - Irish Thomas Bulley Isaac Hodgson Edward Smith Sir John Bowring - diplomat and linguist John Ellis C. Edwards Lester - American writer Tapper Cadbury - Businessman not known Thomas Pinches David Turnbull - Cuban link Edward Adey Richard Barrett John Steer Henry Tuckett James Mott - American on honeymoon Robert Forster (brother of William and Josiah) Richard Rathbone John Birt Wendell Phillips - American M. L'Instant from Haiti Henry Stanton - American Prof William Adam Mrs Elizabeth Tredgold - British South African T.M. McDonnell Mrs John Beaumont Anne Knight - Feminist Elizabeth Pease - Suffragist Jacob Post - Religious writer Anne Isabella, Lady Byron - mathematician and estranged wife Amelia Opie - Novelist and poet Mrs Rawson - Sheffield campaigner Thomas Clarkson's grandson Thomas Clarkson Thomas Morgan Thomas Clarkson - main speaker George Head Head - Banker from Carlisle William Allen John Scoble Henry Beckford - emancipated slave and abolitionist Use your cursor to explore (or Click "i" to enlarge)
1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention.[1] Move your cursor to identify Miller or click the icon to enlarge
  1. ^ The Anti-Slavery Society Convention, 1840, Benjamin Robert Haydon, 1841, National Portrait Gallery, London, NPG599, Given by British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society in 1880

Miller's interests in rights made him become a lawyer in 1831 when he also ran for the Vermont legislature.[4] Meanwhile, he arranged for lectures and gave them himself in favor of abolitionist causes. One of his resolutions in 1833 in the legislature was to require senators to promote anti-slavery.[1] In 1835 the radical American reformer Samuel Joseph May came to speak in Montpelier; it was Miller who stepped forward to intercede with a hostile crowd.[3] Vermont was possibly the most abolitionist of the Northern American states. In 1840 the legislature had declared that fugitive slaves were entitled to a trial by jury. This measure was overturned by the Supreme Court but Vermont responded with its own counter initiatives.[5]

Miller was chosen to travel to England in 1840 to attend the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London.[6] The convention came after a debate in the American organisation led by Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, and Samuel May, who unsuccessfully proposed that women should be recognised as full members and allowed a management role in the American Anti-Slavery organisations.[7] Miller had been an active supporter of the inclusion of women as members of the American Anti-Slavery Society that same year.[1] Therefore, amongst the delegates were some women. The convention had decided to exclude women, including the American delegates. A last-minute debate took place to try and save the day. Ann Phillips told her husband Wendell not to "shilly-shally" when discussing the issue[8] and Miller set forth his point of view.[7] Even though Vermont had chosen to send only male delegates, he argued that "if our female friends were here ... then this hall would not hold them". He said that "women were amongst our primeval abolitionists" as they had "established a standard of liberty" that their husbands followed.[7]

Miller had spoken out boldly, but the moderates were not convinced and although the women were allowed into the convention they had to sit separately and they were not allowed to speak. Miller took his assigned seat at the convention[7] whilst another American delegate William Adam decided to sit with the women.[9] Miller was included in the commemorative painting which now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London.[10] The following year another Anti-Slavery Convention was held in New Hampshire and Miller was one of the speakers, together with William Lloyd Garrison and Nathaniel Peabody Rogers,[1] who had also been in London the previous year.[6]

Miller died in Montpelier, Vermont, after devoting the end of his life to the abolitionist cause.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Michelle Arnosky Sherburne (2013). Abolition and the Underground Railroad in Vermont. The History Press. p. 93. ISBN 978-1-62619-038-2.
  2. 1 2 Jonathan P.Miller, Appletons Encyclopedia, Retrieved 4 August 2015
  3. 1 2 Mary Ellen Snodgrass (26 March 2015). The Underground Railroad: An Encyclopedia of People, Places, and Operations: An Encyclopedia of People, Places, and Operations. Taylor & Francis. p. 1206. ISBN 978-1-317-45415-1.
  4. ↑ 'Journal of the General Assembly of Vermont. Montpelier, Vermont, October 18, 1830, pg. 3, 5
  5. ↑ Paul Finkelman (6 April 2006). Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619–1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass. Oxford University Press. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-19-516777-1.
  6. 1 2 Delegate list, World Anti-Slavery Convention, Retrieved 3 August 2015
  7. 1 2 3 4 Blackwell, Marilyn S. "'Women were among our primeval abolitionists': Women and Organized Antislavery in Vermont, 1834–1848" (PDF). Vermont Historical Society. ISSN 0042-4161. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
  8. ↑ Ann Phillips, wife of Wendell Phillips, a memorial sketch, 1886, retrieved 3 August 2015
  9. ↑ Hill, Andrew. "William Adam:A noble Specimen" (PDF). Canadian UU History Society. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
  10. ↑
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