Gamaliel Bradford (abolitionist)
| Gamaliel Bradford | |
|---|---|
| Born |
November 17, 1795 Boston, Massachusetts |
| Died |
October 22, 1839 Boston, Massachusetts |
| Education |
Harvard University University of Edinburgh |
| Spouse(s) | Maria Rice |
| Relatives |
Gamaliel Bradford, father Sarah Bradford Ripley, sister Gamaliel Bradford, grandson |
Gamaliel Bradford (1795-1839) was an American physician, the superintendent of Massachusetts General Hospital, and an abolitionist.
He was born in Boston on November 17, 1795, one of nine children of Captain Gamaliel Bradford and Elizabeth Hickling Bradford. At the age of 12 he spent nine months as a student in a Catholic seminary in Messina. He entered Harvard University in 1810 and was graduated in 1814. He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society.
While studying medicine, he worked as a private tutor and as an assistant teacher at the Boston Latin School. His studies were interrupted in 1818 by a life-threatening bout of typhus. In 1819 he went to the University of Edinburgh to complete his education, returning in the spring of 1820.
From 1821 to 1827, Bradford practiced medicine in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts. In the mid-1820s he taught physiology. In 1827, he gave up practicing medicine and became the manager of a large South Boston brewery. He left the brewery in 1833, and a few months later was appointed Superintendent of Massachusetts General Hospital.
Bradford attended the founding meeting of the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1832, but did not become a member. He was put off by William Lloyd Garrison's manner and thought his insistence on immediate emancipation was unrealistic. In 1835, however, when Boston's political leaders tried to pass legislation silencing Garrison and other local abolitionists, Bradford published an open letter in the Courier in which he defended the abolitionists' Constitutional rights to free speech and assembly. The letter was later reprinted as a pamphlet. He argued that the abolitionists had as much right to try to influence public opinion as supporters of the Temperance movement, and noted that Benjamin Franklin had signed an anti-slavery resolution in 1790.
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