Theodore Dwight Weld

Theodore Dwight Weld (1803–1895), the author of American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses, was an American abolitionist. He was born in Hampton, Connecticut, where he lived until 1825 when his family moved to upstate New York. He entered Hamilton College, where he became the disciple of Charles Finney, a famous evangelist. He married Angelina Emily Grimke in 1838. From 1836 to 1840, Weld worked as the editor of the Emancipator. In 1839, he published American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses, on which Harriet Beecher Stowe partly based Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Weld used pen names for all of his writings, which many scholars believe to be the reason that he is not as well known as other abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison or Arthur Tappan.

External sources

• Columbia 2003 Encyclopedia Article
• Letters of Theodore Dwight Weld, Angelina Grimke and Sarah Grimke, 1822-1844: Vols. 1 & 2, ISBN:0-8446-1055-0 / 0844610550