David Nelson (abolitionist)

Nelson was studying under Dr. Ephraim McDowell when he performed his groundbreaking ovarian surgery[4]

Nelson first studied medicine in Danville, Kentucky, under Ephraim McDowell, a pioneer surgeon.[1] He then went to the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, where he received his degree in 1812.[5] At the age of nineteen, he returned to Kentucky intending to practice medicine.[5] With the outbreak of the War of 1812, he joined a regiment in Kentucky instead, and went to Canada as a military surgeon.[1]

After the war, he returned to Jonesborough, Tennessee, where he had grown up.[5] Nelson opened a medical practice earning three thousand dollars a year.[3] On May 15, 1816, he married Amanda Frances Deaderick, the daughter of David Deaderick, a respected merchant.[2][1] They eloped because her father did not approve of Dr. Nelson, who had a reputation as an avid card player and gambler.[2]

Around this time, Elihu Embree and Benjamin Lundy were publishing antislavery newspapers in Jonesborough.[5] However, Nelson kept slaves during his years in Tennessee and Kentucky, and first adopted his antislavery views much later in Missouri.[5]

Although Nelson had spent several years questioning his faith,[1] he had a change of heart and started studying theology privately with Reverend Robert Glenn.[2] He was reportedly inspired by missionary Elias Cornelius of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, who gave a sermon when he passed through Tennessee.[3] In April 1825, Nelson was licensed to preach by the Abingdon Presbytery in Virginia,[1] and six months later, he was ordained as a minister `in Rogersville, Tennessee.[2] For two years, Nelson preached in East Tennessee, and traveled with Frederick Augustus Ross through Ohio, Tennessee, and Kentucky, as guest preachers in churches and revival meetings.[2] Nelson also collaborated with Ross and James Gallaher on editing the Calvinistic Magazine.[5][2]

In 1828, David Nelson became pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Danville, Kentucky, succeeding his brother Samuel who had died.[1] He also traveled extensively within Kentucky as an agent of the American Education Society,[1] and taught classes on medicine.[2] Reverend Nelson developed a reputation as a skilled orator and preacher who could "surprise and thrill...with eloquence and pathos."[5] Standing six feet two inches tall, with a large chest, he also had a powerful singing voice which he used effectively during worship.[3]

In 1836, there was a large influx of migrants from Pennsylvania, Ohio and other Eastern states to Marion County known as the "Eastern run".[13] Many of these newcomers opposed slavery.[10] Their arrival was viewed with mistrust and suspicion by local residents who were proslavery, and regarded them all as "abolitionists".[13]

Among the new migrants from the East were two men named Garrett and Williams, agents of the American Colonization Society, who had settled in Philadelphia, Missouri.[13] At Hannibal, it was discovered that Garrett and Williams had been bringing hundreds of tracts and pamphlets supporting colonization – the idea that slaves should be emancipated and sent to Africa – into Marion County.[13] A group of armed and mounted men led by Captain Uriel Wright organized at Palmyra and marched up to Philadelphia, took Garrett and Williams prisoner, searched the premises, and found a box of ACS pamphlets in an outbuilding, hidden under corn husks.[13] On their way back to Palmyra, the proslavery mob threatened to hang Garrett and Williams unless they left Missouri for good.[6][13] The mob took the box of ACS pamphlets to Palmyra. In front of a large, enthusiastic crowd there, they burned the pamphlets "formally and with some ceremony."[13]

That same day, a group rode to Dr. Nelson's house and surrounded it, demanding that he turn over any antislavery pamphlets as well.[5] Nelson warned them to leave. The mob left, threatening to come back for him.[5]

The Garrett-Williams incident was followed by a series of public meetings in Marion County denouncing anyone suspected of harboring sentiments opposing slavery, with many local citizens vowing to drive them out.[13] On May 21, 1836, Professor Ezra Stiles Ely was called before a meeting discussing the role of Marion College in the abolition movement.[10] Much to the alarm of abolitionist groups in the East, Ely admitted that he opposed slavery but denied supporting abolitionism and claimed to own a slave.[10] Garrett and Williams left for Illinois and later became students of David Nelson in Quincy.[2]

Dr. John Bosely, a slaveowner and a member of the congregation, was angered that Nelson had raised the slavery issue from the pulpit and rushed toward Nelson brandishing a cane.[5] Muldrow rushed toward Bosely to stop him, explaining that he was the one who had insisted that the colonizationist paper be read by Nelson.[5] A fight broke out, during which Bosely drew a spear and then a pistol, which he aimed at Muldrow and "snapped" twice.[13][5] In response, Muldrow drew his pocketknife and stabbed Bosely "under the left shoulder and into the left lung".[2][5][13] According to David Nelson's son, Dr. William Nelson, "Several men tied red handkerchiefs around their waists, got on their horses and started to raise a mob. Father started for home, but mother, who was frantic, persuaded him to start for Quincy."[5]

Nelson's poem was later set to music by G. F. Root[14]

For the next three days, Nelson hid and traveled by night until he reached the bank of the Mississippi River.[5] Along the way, he evaded many vigilantes with red handkerchiefs.[5] Meanwhile, two of his friends headed south to Hannibal, where they crossed the river by ferry and relayed a message to his contacts in Quincy, Illinois.[2] According to popular lore, Nelson was inspired to write his most famous poem, "The Shining Shore", while hiding near the riverbank, waiting to make his escape.[5][14]

At dusk, two church members from Quincy pretended to go fishing and followed signs until Nelson finally emerged from hiding.[5] On the boat, they fed him dried codfish and crackers, which led the starving Nelson to joke that he was turning into a "Yankee."[5] Nelson then went to stay at the old Log Cabin Hotel in Quincy, where rumors circulated that Nelson himself had stabbed Bosely.[5] The next day, a group of citizens from Quincy and from Missouri went to the hotel to protest Nelson's arrival, and demanded that he be placed in their custody.[5] Nelson refused to leave on the grounds that the men had no legal papers.[5] John Wood, the founder of Quincy who would later serve as governor, went to the hotel with 30 armed men to confront and break up the mob.[15]

Back in Missouri, William Muldrow was taken into custody, but was later defended by lawyer Edward Bates, and acquitted.[13] Dr. John Bosely recovered from his wounds.[5] David Nelson arranged for Amanda and their many children to wait at a friend's house in Missouri, where he arrived by night to take them back to Quincy.[2]

Once they were settled in Quincy, Nelson sent an open letter "To the Presbyterians of Missouri, who hold slaves," published in Elijah Lovejoy's newspaper, the St. Louis Observer.[2] The letter challenged slaveowners to reexamine their moral convictions.[2] In the years that followed, Nelson would avoid public appearances in Missouri as much as possible due to ongoing opposition to his presence, even declining an invitation to preach at his old church in Marion County.[5]

Reverend Asa Turner assisted Nelson in Quincy, Illinois

On June 10, 1836, a public meeting was called for citizens of Adams County, Illinois, to oppose the introduction of abolitionist societies and any discussion of abolitionism from the church pulpit. In the days leading up to the event, another minister, Reverend Asa Turner, warned church authorities and prepared for possible mob violence by placing loaded guns underneath the platform of his church pulpit. Turner proceeded to give a controversial sermon in which he denounced mob violence and slavery, in solidarity with Nelson.[5]

Both Nelson and Turner then become targets to be "removed" from Quincy. On Saturday, June 18, a large crowd gathered in Quincy, coming from all over Adams County. Joseph T. Holmes, acting as justice of the peace, went to the group leaders and warned them that if they formed a mob, he would read them the riot act and use force if necessary. After passing a resolution against abolition and getting drunk, the proslavery gathering dispersed without causing a major incident.[5]

On October 30, 1838, Dr. and Mrs. Nelson gave 80 acres of land in trust for a new college, the Mission Institute, in Melrose Township near Quincy.[5] This became known as Mission Institute Number One, the first of four sites.[15] Number One included a chapel or meeting house and twenty log cabins built by students.[7][15] In 1840, Nelson established Mission Institute Number Two on an 11-acre site, which eventually included a two-story brick school and 20 to 30 cabins.[15]

The Mission Institute focused on educating young people for mission work in other countries. Graduates of the Mission Institute went on to serve as evangelical missionaries in New Zealand, Madeira and Africa.[5] Others became missionaries in North America, working in Oregon Territory, in Iowa Territory among the Winnebago Indians, and in Canada among fugitives from slavery.[17]

As enrollment increased, the Mission Institute received additional land grants from supporters in Quincy.[7] Nelson took on a partner, an abolitionist theologian named Moses Hunter from Allegany, New York, and tasked him with starting a women's department.[7] Although the Mission Institute Number One and Number Two were Presbyterian, Hunter was put in charge of Mission Institute Number Four, also known as "Theopolis," which was Congregationalist and focused on theological study.[7]

The school itself was later regarded as a failure,[5] but the Mission Institute played an important role in the Underground Railroad.[15] The trustees, teachers and students of the Mission Institute were all "unreservedly antislavery," which made it unpopular with local residents.[17] Nelson sent students and graduates of the Mission Institute to northeastern Missouri to preach the "whole gospel" to African Americans – enslaved and free – and help many slaves escape to freedom.[7]

The Underground Railroad had been operating in Quincy from as early as 1830.[17] As a result of Nelson's efforts, Mission Institute Number One became the best known Underground Railroad station in Quincy.[18][15] The Nelson home called "Oakland" was nearby, with a built-in hiding place for fugitives.[15] Mission Institute Number Two, originally a four-room dormitory, also became a significant Underground Railroad station.[15]

Quincy itself became an important entrance point to the Underground Railroad in Illinois, along with Chester and Alton.[5] The Underground Railroad route originating in Quincy followed a route very similar to the later Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad line.[5]

On March 9, 1843, proslavery arsonists set fire to the Mission Institute Number Two in Illinois.[5][15] According to historians, the Mission Institute had soon become "the special object of hatred by the slaveholders of Missouri,"[16] who referred to it as "Nelson College"[5] or the "abolitionist factory."[7] The Mission Institute buildings were burned down by a band of men from Palmyra, Missouri, who crossed over the "ice bridge" that had formed over the Mississippi River.[5] No attempts were made to arrest anyone. The arson was viewed by many as "fair retaliation" for the large number of slaves who had been "spirited away" from Marion County to freedom via Quincy, Illinois.[5] David Nelson started rebuilding the Mission Institute after it was burned down.[15]

A decade after his death, composer George Frederick Root set David Nelson's poem "The Shining Shore" to music.[14] His mother had found the poem in a religious newspaper and passed it on to him.[14] Root only discovered much later that Nelson had written the words.[14] "The Shining Shore" became very popular during the American Civil War, and is quoted in the book Specimen Days by Walt Whitman.[2] In 1907, The Dictionary of Hymnology noted that the hymn, also known as "My days are gliding swiftly by", was "exceedingly popular".[19] More recently, classical music recording artists Anonymous 4 performed "The Shining Shore" on their album Gloryland, which debuted at #3 on the Billboard Classical Music chart in 2006.[2][20]

In the 1960s, Ruth Deters's family discovered a hidden room underneath a trap door in their home, east of Quincy, Illinois, after one of her young sons hid from a babysitter.[2] Although she and her husband had known that Dr. Nelson had built the house, they had been unaware that "Oakland" had been an Underground station in its own right, with a secret room and tunnel which once led out of their basement.[2] Deters then embarked on several decades of research, culminating in her 2008 book, The Underground Railroad Ran Through My House![2] The book investigates over 32 Underground Railroad stations in Quincy, in addition to the Mission Institute sites.[15]

• The Cause and Cure of Infidelity: A Notice of the Author's Unbelief and the Means of His Rescue[21]
• An Appeal to the Church in Behalf of a Dying Race: From the Mission Institute Near Quincy, Illinois[22]
• Dr. Nelson's Lecture on Slavery[23]

• "The Shining Shore" / "My days are gliding swiftly by"[24][5]
• "Death and Heaven" / "This world explore, from shore to shore"[25]
• "A Better World in Prospect" / "'Twas told me in my early day"[26]
• "Elizabeth Town C. M." / "O Lord, be thou with those who sail"[27]