Ellis Gray Loring

Ellis Gray Loring
Loring circa 1848
Born	(1803-04-14)April 14, 1803 Boston, U.S.
Died	May 25, 1858(1858-05-25) (aged 55) Boston, U.S.
Alma mater	Harvard College Harvard Law School
Spouse(s)	Louisa Gilman
Children	Anna Loring Dresel

Ellis Gray Loring (1803-1858) was an American attorney, abolitionist, and philanthropist from Boston. He co-founded the New England Anti-Slavery Society, provided legal advice to abolitionists, harbored fugitive slaves in his home, and helped finance the abolitionist newspaper, the Liberator. Loring also mentored Robert Morris, who went on to become one of the first African-American attorneys in the United States.

Loring was born in Boston on April 14, 1803, to James Tyng Loring, a druggist, and Relief Faxon Cookson Loring. He attended the Boston Latin School, and was awarded the school's Franklin Medal for scholarship in 1819. He studied at Harvard, where he was a Phi Beta Kappa member. He was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1827, and went to work for the Western Railroad Company.

Loring initially believed that a policy of abolishing slavery gradually, rather than all at once, would attract more supporters to the abolitionist cause. William Lloyd Garrison persuaded him that "immediate and unconditional emancipation" was the only morally acceptable policy. On January 1, 1831, Loring was one of twelve abolitionists who gathered in the basement of the African Meeting House to found the New England Anti-Slavery Society. He and Oliver Johnson drafted the society's constitution. He was also a member of the financial committee that supported the abolitionist newspaper, the Liberator.

Along with David Lee Child and Samuel Edmund Sewall, Loring frequently provided legal advice to abolitionists. In 1836, to appease conservatives who were upset by local activists, Massachusetts governor Edward Everett proposed legislation that would have curtailed the free speech of abolitionists. Along with Garrison and Samuel Joseph May, Loring argued before the joint legislative committee appointed to consider the measure, and persuaded them it was unconstitutional. That same year, he and Sewall successfully argued before the Massachusetts Supreme Court in Commonwealth v. Aves that any slave who was brought to a free state by a slaveholder could not be forced to leave.