Nehemiah Adams

American clergyman and writer

Nehemiah Adams

Born	(1806-02-19)February 19, 1806 Salem, Massachusetts
Died	October 6, 1878(1878-10-06) (aged 72)
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Harvard University, Andover Theological Seminary
Occupation	clergyman
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Reverend Nehemiah Adams (February 19, 1806 – October 6, 1878) was an American clergyman and writer.

Biography

He was born in Salem, Massachusetts,^[1] in 1806 to Nehemiah Adams and Mehitabel Torrey Adams. He graduated from Harvard University in 1826, and from Andover Theological Seminary in 1829. That same year, he was ordained as co-pastor, with Abiel Holmes, of the First Congregational Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts.^[2] In 1832, he married Martha Hooper.

In 1834, he became pastor of Union Congregational Church in Boston, Massachusetts. He would remain in that position until his death in 1878.^[2] In 1850, he married again, to Sarah Brackett.

In 1854, he took a trip to the American South, and wrote a book entitled A South-Side View of Slavery (Boston, 1855).^[3] In the book, he lauded slavery as beneficial to the Negroes' religious character.^[1]^[4] This book was one of several polemic works he wrote. It caused a great sensation, and he received much hostile criticism. The book was attacked by abolitionists for its perceived moderation; the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator called it "as vile a work as was ever written, in apology and defence of 'the sum of all villanies'".^[5]

In 1861, Adams wrote a successor volume, The Sable Cloud, a Southern Tale with Northern Comments, to answer his attackers, and it was met with a similar response.^[6]

He also wrote The Cross in the Cell, Scriptural Argument for Endless Punishment, Broadcast, At Eventide,^[2] and a Life of John Eliot.^[1] He was a member of the American Tract Society and the American Board for Foreign Missions.^[2]

In 1869, in consequence of his failing health, his people procured an associate pastor and gave Adams a long leave of absence. He made a voyage round the world and described it in Under the Mizzenmast: A Voyage Around the World (1871).^[2]

Adams died in 1878, aged 72. He left nine children.

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c Gilman, Peck & Colby 1905.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Wilson & Fiske 1900.
^ Adams, Nehemiah (1855). A Southside View of Slavery. Boston: T. R. Marvin.
^ Rines 1920, p. 107.
^ "THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY" (PDF). The Liberator. Vol. XXVII, no. 25. June 19, 1957. p. 98. Retrieved August 22, 2017.
^ —— (1861). The Sable Cloud: A Southern Tale, with Northern Comments. Boston: Ticknor and Fields.

Attribution:

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). "Adams, Nehemiah" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.

References

Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Adams, Nehemiah" . New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). "Adams, Nehemiah" . Encyclopedia Americana. p. 107.
Who Was Who in America. Historical Volume 1607-1896. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who. 1963.