Theodore Parker was a Unitarian minister and leader in the rising Transcendentalist movement, serving the 28th Congregational Society of Boston. He was also a vocal opponent of slavery.
The Compromise of 1850 and particularly the Fugitive Slave Act put Ellen and William Craft, two of his parishioners in danger of being captured and returned to the south. He rallied support for them while at the same time in many different venues voiced his opposition to all such compromises with slavery as an affront before God and humanity.
During this crisis the Crafts stayed for some time in Parker’s home. President Millard Fillmore promised to send the militia to arrest the Crafts, and there are stories of Parker composing his sermons with a pistol on his writing desk.
(That both Fillmore and Parker were Unitarians is a worthy subject for another reflection another time…)
The Crafts would eventually escape to England. And their story is one of the most moving of this time.
But today, Theodore Parker.
For his involvement in all this, on this day in 1855 Theodore Parker was brought to trial on charges of inciting a riot.
It is hard for me not to think that in our day under our current administration, Parker could be thought of as a terrorist…
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