Mad-Man: Madison through Mansfield

See below for annotated biographies of American abolitionists and anti-slavery activists. Sources include: Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography and Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography.


MADISON, James, 1751-1836, Virginia, founding father, fourth President of the United States.  American Colonization Society, President, 1833-1837.  Madison owned and kept slaves.  He also supported the colonization movement.  Madison stated that it was his “earnest prayer, that every success may reward the labors of an institution… so noble in its object of removing a great evil from its own country.” 

(Burin, Eric. Slavery and the Peculiar Solution: A History of the American Colonization Society. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 2005, p. 10; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, pp. 165-171; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, p. 182; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 7, 24, 107, 180, 183, 187; Longacre, James B. & James Herring, National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans.  Philadelphia: American Academy of Fine Arts, 1834-1839)


MAFFITT, John Newland, 1795-1850, Boston, Massachusetts, Methodist clergyman.  Strong supporter and advocate for colonization and the American Colonization Society. 

(Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, p. 172; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 134)

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, p. 172:

MAFFITT, John Newland, clergyman, born in Dublin, Ireland, 28 December, 1795; died near Mobile, Alabama, 28 May, 1850. He was destined for mercantile life by his parents, who belonged to the Established church; but embracing the Wesleyan doctrines in 1813, he determined to become a minister, and, meeting with opposition at home, emigrated to the United States in 1819, and in 1822 entered the New England conference of the Methodist Episcopal church. After preaching for twelve years as an itinerant in various cities of the eastern states, he became a local preacher in New York city in 1832, and thereafter travelled, preached, and lectured at his own discretion. In 1833, in conjunction with Reverend Lewis Garrett, he established in Nashville, Tennessee, the “Western Methodist,” which was subsequently transformed into the “Christian Advocate,” and adopted as the central organ of the Methodist Episcopal church, south. Great numbers assembled to listen to his sermons in the south and southwest, and many converts were added to the church. He was agent for La Grange college, Alabama, in 1836-'7, and was subsequently for a short time professor of elocution and belles-lettres in that institution, but resided chiefly in the Atlantic cities. In 1841 he was chaplain to the National house of representatives. In 1845-'6 he edited a literary and religious monthly, called the “Calvary Token,” that he had established at Auburn, New York. In 1847, on the occasion of a second marriage, charges were brought against his moral character, in consequence of which he removed from New York to Arkansas. He preached in various cities, but his popularity was affected and his mind troubled by the suspicions he had incurred, and his power as a pulpit orator was gone. Mr. Maffitt was the author of “Tears of Contrition,” a recountal of his religious experiences (1821); “Pulpit Sketches” (Boston, 1828); and a volume of “Poems” (1839). He left an “Oratorical Dictionary” and an “Autobiography.”  Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.


MAGILL, Jonathan P., New Hope, Pennsylvania, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1840-1842, 1843-1852.


MAHAN, Asa, 1799-1889, Ohio, clergyman, abolitionist, president of Oberlin College 1835-1850.  Vice President, American Anti-Slavery Society, 1834-1835.

(Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, p. 165; Mabee, Carleton. Black Freedom: The Nonviolent Abolitionists from 1830 Through the Civil War. London: Macmillan, 1970, pp. 218, 403n25; Sinha, 2016, p. 466; Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888,Volume IV, p. 176; Dictionary of American Biography; Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, p. 208; Abolitionist; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, p. 208:

MAHAN, ASA (November 9, 1799-April 4, 1889), Congregational clergyman, college president, was born at Vernon, New York, the son of Captain Samuel Mahan and his second wife, Anna Dana, of Worcester, Massachusetts. From his twelfth to his seventeenth year the family lived in western New York, then a pioneer region. Home missionaries from Connecticut were frequently entertained by the Mahans. The mother, who was intensely interested in religious subjects, would propound theological questions to the visitors, and the boy's "heart would leap," he tells us, at the prospect of the discussion. From his eighth year he was much given to religious thought, and as a youth accepted unhesitatingly the high Calvinistic system in which he was trained. When seventeen years old he was appointed to teach a winter school in a district near his home. It was arranged that his father should have the son's wages that winter, after which the latter should be free to apply his earnings to obtaining an education, which it was his consuming desire to secure. During this winter he passed through a period of agony over the question as to whether he was "one of the elect," from which condition he emerged into a free Christian experience, resulting in a radical modification of his Calvinism by the adoption of a doctrine of full moral freedom. Teaching school year after year during the winter months, he pursued his studies at Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, graduating in 1824. Entering Andover Theological Seminary, he completed his course there in 1827. He was an active participant in the great revivals from 1824 to 1832. At New Brunswick, New Jersey, May 9, 1828, he married Mary H. Dix.

He was ordained pastor of the Congregational Church at Pittsford, New York, November 10, 1829. Having a naturally weak voice, he subjected it to a self-devised training until it became adequate to the most exacting requirements of public speaking. In 1831 he was called to the pastorate of th~ Sixth Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati. As trustee of the recently established Lane Theological Seminary, he dissented vigorously from the action of the trustees interdicting discussion of the question of slavery. In 1835 he was elected first president of Oberlin College, founded in 1833. Eighty of the Lane students followed him to Oberlin, which led to the establishment of a theological department in the college. For some months the president and his family lived in a log house, the first which had been built in the Oberlin colony.

Mahan threw himself with ardor into the work of the young college, did much speaking and preaching, and taught philosophy with enthusiasm, giving an enduring impetus to this study at Oberlin. In philosophy he was intuitionist of the Scottish "common sense" school. He shared student manual labor, including work on the highway (Autobiography, p. 275). His acceptance of the presidency of Oberlin he had made conditional upon its reception of students without discrimination as to color. He was, moreover, always proud of having been the first college president to give degrees to women on the same conditions as to men. A believer in fullest freedom of discussion, he was sometimes suspected of "a greater facility in conviction than in conciliation" (J. H. Fairchild, post, p. 278). He was an impressive figure, with solid frame and full-bearded face. His administration in the main was successful; but in 1850 he accepted a call to take the direction of Cleveland University, which friends of his were projecting. Since this enterprise did not succeed, in 1855 he resumed pastoral work, serving Congregational churches, at Jackson, Michigan (1855-57), and at Adrian, Michigan (1857-60). He was connected with Adrian College as professor and from 1860 to 1871 as president. His wife died in 1863 and in 1866 he married Mrs. Mary E. Chase. The later years of his long life he pas sed in England, preaching to large congregations, advocating Christian perfection, editing a monthly magazine, The Divine Life, and issuing volume after volume on philosophy and religion. He died at Eastbourne, England. His published works include Scripture Doctrine of Christian Perfection (1839), A System of Intellectual Philosophy (copyright 1845), Doctrine of the Will (1845), The True Believer; His Character, Duty and Privileges (1847), The Science of Moral Philosophy (1848), Election and Influence of the Holy Spirit (1851), Modern Mysteries Explained and Exposed (1855), The Science of Logic (1857), Science of Natural Theology (1867), Theism and Anti-Theism in Their Relations to Science (1872), The Phenomena of Spiritualism Scientifically Explained and Exposed (1875), A Critical History of the Late American War (1877), The System of Mental Philosophy (1882), A Critical History of Philosophy (1883), Autobiography, Intellectual, Moral and Spiritual (London, 1882).

[In addition to Mahan's Autobiography, see E. H. Fairchild, Historical Sketch of Oberlin College (1868); J. H. Fairchild, Oberlin, the Colony and the College (1883); D. L. Leonard, The Story of Oberlin (1898), Oberlin Review, April 30, 1889; The Times (London), April 10, 1889.]

E.D.E.

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, pp. 176:

MAHAN, Asa, clergyman, born in Vernon, New York, 9 November, 1800. He was graduated at Hamilton college in 1824, and at Andover theological seminary in 1827. On 10 November, 1829, he was ordained pastor of the Congregational church in Pittsford, New York, and in 1831 he was called to the pastorate of a Presbyterian church in Cincinnati, Ohio. He accepted the presidency of Oberlin in 1835, with the chair of intellectual and moral philosophy, and the assistant professorship of theology, but after fifteen years was chosen president of Cleveland university, Cleveland, Ohio, and professor of mental and moral philosophy there. In 1855 he resumed pastoral work, and had charge of Congregational parishes at Jackson in 1855-'7 and at Adrian in 1857-'60. He was president of Adrian college, Mich., in 1860-'71, and since then has resided in England. President Mahan has received the degree of D. D. from Hillsdale in 1858, and that of LL. D. from Adrian in 1877. He has been an active advocate of the religious views that are known as Perfectionist, and has published “Scripture Doctrine of Christian Perfection” (Boston, 1839). His other works include “System of Intellectual Philosophy” (New York, 1845); “The Doctrine of the Will” (Oberlin, 1846); “The True Believer: his Character, Duties, and Privileges” (New York, 1847); “The Science of Moral Philosophy” (Oberlin, 1848); “Election and the Influence of the Holy Spirit” (New York, 1851); “Modern Mysteries Explained and Exposed” (Boston, 1855); “The Science of Logic” (New York, 1857); “Science of Natural Theology” (Boston, 1867); “Theism and Anti-Theism in their Relations to Science” (Cleveland, 1872); “The Phenomena of Spiritualism scientifically Explained and Exposed” (New York, 1876); “Critical History of the late American War” (1877); “A System of Mental Philosophy” (Chicago, 1882); and “Critical History of Philosophy” (New York 1883). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, pp. 176.


MAHAN, John B., Brown County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-39.


MALVIN, John, 1793-1880, African American, abolitionist, community and civil rights activist.  Active participant in the Underground Railroad in Ohio.  Member of the Cleveland Anti-Slavery Society and Vice President of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society.  Active in the Negro Convention Movement.

(Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Volume 7, p. 473)


MANN, Daniel, Princeton, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Treasurer, 1844-45, Executive Committee, 1846.


MANN, Horace, 1796-1859, educator, political leader, social reformer.  U.S. Congressman, Whig Party, from Massachusetts.  He filled former Congressman John Quincy Adams’ seat.  Co-founder of the Young Men’s Colonization Society in Boston.  Co-founded monthly paper, The Colonizationist and Journal of Freedom.  He defended the American Colonization Society and its policies against criticism by William Lloyd Garrison.  Opposed extension of slavery in territories annexed in the Mexican War of 1846.  Said, “I consider no evil as great as slavery...”  Argued against the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.  Reelected to Congress and served from April 1848 until March 1853.  

(Mabee, Carleton. Black Freedom: The Nonviolent Abolitionists from 1830 Through the Civil War. London: Macmillan, 1970, pp. 64, 157, 160, 168, 170, 171, 261, 294, 409n9; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, pp. 190-191; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, pp. 240-243; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 14, p. 424; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 204).

In the spring of 1848 Mann was elected to Congress as a Whig, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John Quincy Adams. His first speech in that body was in advocacy of its right and duty to exclude slavery from the territories, and in a letter in December of that year he said: "I think the country is to experience serious times. Interference with slavery will excite civil commotion in the south. But it is best to interfere. Now is the time to see whether the Union is a rope of sand or a band of steel." Again he said: "I consider no evil as great as slavery, and I would pass the Wilmot proviso whether the south rebel or not." During the first session he volunteered as counsel for Drayton and Sayres, who were indicted for stealing seventy-six slaves in the District of Columbia, and at the trial was engaged for twenty-one successive days in their defence. In 1850 he was engaged in a controversy with Daniel Webster in regard to the extension of slavery and the fugitive-slave law. Mann was defeated by a single vote at the ensuing nominating convention by Mr. Webster's supporters; but, on appealing to the people as an independent anti-slavery candidate, he was re-elected, serving from April, 1848, till March, 1853. In September, 1852, he was nominated for governor of Massachusetts by the Free-Soil Party, and the same day was chosen president of Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio. Failing in the election for governor, he accepted the presidency of the college, in which he continued until his death. He carried that institution through pecuniary and other difficulties, and satisfied himself of the practicality of co-education. His death was hastened by his untiring labors in his office. He published, besides his annual reports, his lectures on education, and his voluminous controversial writings, " A Few Thoughts for a Young Man" (Boston, 1850); "Slavery: Letters and Speeches" (1851); "Powers and Duties of Woman'' (1853); and "Sermons" (1861). See "Life of Horace Mann," by his wife (1865); "Life and Complete Works of Horace Mann " (2 volumes, Cambridge, 1869); and "Thoughts selected from the Writings of Horace Mann " (1869). His lectures on education were translated into French by Eugene de Guer, under the title of "De l'importance de l'education dans une republique," with a preface and biographical sketch by Edouard R. L. Laboulaye (Paris, 1873).

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 6, Pt. 2, pp. 240-243:

MANN, HORACE (May 4, 1796-August 2, 1859), educator, one of five children of Thomas and Rebecca (Stanley) Mann, was born on the ancestral farm in the town of Franklin, Massachusetts, a descendant of William Mann, an early settler of Cambridge, M ass. From his father, who died of tuberculosis in 1809, Horace inherited a frail constitution and a susceptibility to this disease. His parents were people of meager education but of sterling character, and imparted to their children habits of industry and high ideals. Mann's childhood was an unhappy one passed in poverty, unremitting toil, repression, and fear. The studies and methods of the district school w ere stultifying, the school masters ignorant, and their discipline stern and terrifying. Still more terrifying were the Sunday sermons preached by the Reverend Nathaniel Emmons [q .v.], in which were pictured the eternal torments of those damned fo r the glory of God. Night after night the little lad, filled with grief and horror over the possible fate awaiting his loved ones, sobbed himself to sleep. Although Franklin possessed a town library, it brought little relief to the mind of the harrowed child, made up a s it was chiefly of old histories and theological works. Undoubtedly, the immediate influence of school, church, and town library upon this highly sensitive boy were repressive, if not injurious; nevertheless, to the spirit of revolt engendered by their defects can be traced directly many of the most important reform efforts of his later life.

The superiority of Mann's mental gifts was revealed in connection with his preparation for college. Up to the time he was sixteen, he had never attended school more than eight or ten weeks in any one year, and he did not begin preparing for college, until 1816. Then, in six months, under the direction of a n eccentric but brilliant itinerant teacher named Barrett, he completed a course of study which enabled him to enter the sophomore class of Brown University. Here he made a brilliant record, graduating with high honors in 1819. He now enter ed a law office in Wrentham, Massachusetts, but after a few months returned to Brown as a tutor in Latin and Greek. In 1821 he left Brown to enter the famous law school at Litchfield, Connecticut, and in 1823 was admitted to the bar of Norfolk County, Massachusetts. For fourteen years, fir st at Dedham, Massachusetts., and after 1833 at Boston, he practised with marked success. Meanwhile, he had begun his public career as a member of the Massachusetts state legislature, first serving in the House (1827-33), and then in the Senate (1833-37). During the last two years, he was president of the Senate, and as such signed the epoch-making education bill which became a law April 20, 1837. This bill provided for a state board of education, to consist of the governor, lieutenant-governor, and eight citizens to be appointed by the governor. It empowered the board of education to appoint and employ a secretary at an annual salary of $1,000 (increased in 1838 to $1,500), and to make annual reports to the state legislature.

It had been expected that the board would choose as its first secretary James G. Carter [q.v.], the framer of the bill, a man whose services to education undoubtedly eclipsed those of any other citizen of the state up to that time. The selection of Mann, largely through the influence of Edmund Dwight [q.v.], was, however, a matter of no greater surprise than Mann's acceptance, involving, as it did, his abandonment of a lucrative legal practice and the prospect of an alluring political career; but his reasons for acceptance are not difficult to discover. Though exceedingly successful, he had never been ardently enthusiastic about his profession; from early childhood he had been possessed with a consuming desire to do something for the benefit of mankind; he saw in the secretaryship, moreover, a means of combating the grief and despair which had held him in clutch ever since the death of his wife, Charlotte Messer, daughter of President Asa Messer [q.v.] of Brown University, whom he had married September 12, 1830, and who had died childless, August 1, 1832.

The educational situation awaiting the new secretary offered ample scope for his many talents. The school-district system legalized in 1789 had brought with it a multitude of evils, including disastrous decentralization, a decline in public interest, and a decrease of financial support. Free schools, the one-time glory of colonial Massachusetts, were now regarded with contempt by the well-to-do classes, who more and more patronized private schools. The effects of this attitude were everywhere evident in short school terms, dilapidated and unsanitary schoolhouses, untrained and underpaid teachers, and irrational methods of teaching. To remedy these conditions as far and as soon as possible was the task awaiting Mann. Clothed with almost no authority except to collect and disseminate information, he brought to his new duties such a degree of courage, vision, and wisdom that during the brief period of twelve years in which he held office, the Massachusetts school system was almost completely transformed. His first task was to arouse and to educate public opinion with reference to the purpose, value, and needs of public education. With this end in view, he organized annual educational conventions in every county for the benefit of teachers, school officials, and the public. He not only addressed these meetings himself, but pressed into service distinguished clergymen, lawyers, and college professors. Realizing that there was little hope of any improvement in the schools apart from the improvement of the teaching profession, he rapidly consummated plans which led to the establishment of teachers' institutes and normal ' schools. During the second year of his office, Edmund Dwight, through Mann, anonymously offered $10,000 to the state of Massachusetts for improving the  preparation of elementary teachers, provided the state would furnish a like amount. Dwight's gift and its conditions were accepted by the legislature, and within two years Massachusetts had established the first three state normal schools in the United States.

In 1838, with the avowed purpose of bringing about a better understanding of the problems of the public school, he started a semi-monthly magazine, the Common School Journal, which he edited for ten years. A far more important channel through which he disseminated a knowledge of existing conditions and needed reforms were the twelve annual reports which he prepared (1837-48) as secretary of the state board of education. Each contains not only the customary statistical data, but a presentation and discussion of school problems of crucial importance. The needs and remedies growing out of these problems are set forth with convincing clearness and with the fervor or a prophet and reformer.

The results of his labors were remarkable. When he became secretary, elementary men teachers were receiving an average-annual wage of $185, and women, $65; one-sixth of the children of the state were being educated in private schools and academies, and approximately one-third were without any educational opportunities whatsoever. In multitudes of districts the school term did not extend beyond two or three months. Under Mann's influence, a minimum school year of six months was established by an act passed in 1839. More than $2,000,000 was spent in providing better schoolhouses and equipment. Appropriations for public education were more than doubled. The proportion of private school expenditure to that of public schools decreased from seventy-five to thirty-six per cent. of total school costs. Salaries of public school masters were increased by sixty-two per cent. and those of women, by fifty-four per cent. The high-school law of 1827, largely a dead letter prior to his time; became effective, with the result that at least fifty new high schools were established during as secretaryship and opportunities for free public secondary education became widely distributed throughout the state. The professional training of teachers was placed on a firm basis, the elementary curriculum was enriched, and improved methods of instruction, including especially the Pestalozzian object methods and the word method of teaching reading, were introduced.

It was inevitable that Mann's aggressive efforts should sooner or later arouse bitter opposition. As a Unitarian, he contended that the Bible should be read in public schools, but without comment. He had scarcely entered upon his progressive educational program when one church after another began to charge him and the board of education with being responsible for creating a godless system of schools. With these charges came the demand that sectarian instruction, which had been excluded from the schools by an act of 1827, should be restored. Mann met these sectarian attacks with vigor, courage, and a final victory of great importance, not only to the schools of Massachusetts, but to the nation at large. Immediately after his marriage to his second wife, Mary Tyler (Peabody) Mann [q.v.], on May 1, 1843, he sailed for Europe with two purposes in mind: to recover his health, and to discover what America might learn from European schools. He spent five months studying educational conditions in England, Ireland, Scotland, Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, and Switzerland. His observations and conclusions, embodied in his seventh annual report, drew no comparison between the schools of the United States and those of European countries; nevertheless, his high commendation of German schools was interpreted by a considerable numb er of Boston school masters as implying a drastic criticism of their own professional preparation and practices. An acrimonious controversy ensued from which, however, Mann again came forth victorious.

In 1848 he resigned his secretaryship, having been elected to the United States House of Representatives as an anti-slavery Whig to succeed John Quincy Adams. Although allied with antislavery forces, Mann was not an abolitionist; nevertheless, he was eventually led into open conflict with Daniel Webster, whose friendship arid political support he had enjoyed up to this time. In 1852 he met defeat as the candidate of the Free-Soilers for the governorship of Massachusetts. He then accepted the presidency of the recently established Antioch College at Yellow Springs, Ohio. Besides serving as president, he taught political economy, intellectual philosophy, moral phi1osophy, and natural theology. In 1859, owing to bad management, lack of funds; and internal dissensions, the -college was sold for debt and reorganized. Following his delivery of the baccalaureate address of that year, Mann, exhausted and broken by the anxieties and persecution amid which he had labored, retired to his home, where he died within a few weeks. He was survived by his wife and their three sons.

Mann espoused many other causes beside that of the common schools, notably the establishment of state. hospitals for the insane and the restriction of slavery, lotteries, and the liquor traffic. Essentially a Puritan without a theology, he denounced not only profanity and intemperance, but smoking and ballet dancing. His lasting place in American history rests, however, upon his services to public education. His influence in this field extended far beyond the boundaries of Massachusetts. Copies of his annual reports and other educational writings were widely disseminated throughout the United States with the result that one state after another sought and followed his advice. Owing to his efforts combined with those of other educational pioneers, there ensued a period so marked by educational progress and reform that it has ever since come to be known as the period of the common-school revival in the United States.

Among the many influences which played an important part in developing the character, philosophy, ideals, and aims of Horace Mann were the writings of Emerson and those of the Scotch philosopher and phrenologist, George Combe. Although Mann acquired from Combe a belief in phrenology, undoubtedly the greatest source of Combe's influence over him was the Scotch philosopher's unswerving faith in the unlimited improvability of the human race through education. The motivating principle of Mann's life was nowhere better or more clearly expressed than in the oft-quoted words with which I he closed his-last Commencement address at Antioch College: "Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity." In addition to his twelve annual reports which are included in abbreviated form in Mary Mann's Life (post, volume III), and numerous articles in magazines, he published Lectures on Education (1845).

[Biographies and biographical sketches of Mann have been published in English, French, and Spanish. Of these the most important in English are: Life and Works of Horace Mann, ed. by Mary Tyler Peabody Mann (3 volumes, 1865-68), enlarged and ed. by G. C. Mann (5 volumes, 1891); B. A. Hinsdale, Horace Mann and the Common School Revival in the U. S. (1898); G. Compayre, Horace Mann and the Public School in the U.S. (tr. 1907); A. E. Winship, Horace Mann the Educator (1896). See also R. B. Culver, Horace Mann and Religion in the Massachusetts Public Schools (1929). For a genealogy of the Mann family, consult G. S. Mann, Mann Memorial; A Record of the Mann Family in America (1884). For bibliographies consult B. P. Mann, in Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1895-96 (1897), volume I, and B. A. Hinsdale, supra, pp; 311-19; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe]
F. H. S.

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, pp. 190-191:

MANN, Horace, educator, born in Franklin, Massachusetts, 4 May, 1796; died in Yellow Springs, Ohio, 2 August, 1859. His father was a farmer in limited circumstances, and the son was forced to procure by his own exertions the means of obtaining an education. He earned his school-books when a child by braiding straw, and his severe and frugal life taught him habits of self-reliance and independence. From ten years of age to twenty he had never more than six weeks’ schooling during any year, and he describes his instructors as “very good people, but very poor teachers.” He was graduated at Brown in 1819, and the theme of his oration, “The Progressive Character of the Human Race,” foreshadowed his subsequent career. After his graduation he was tutor in Latin and Greek in Brown, entered the Litchfield, Connecticut, law-school in 1821, and in 1823 was admitted to the bar, opening an office in Dedham, Massachusetts. He was elected to the legislature in 1827, and in that body was active in the interests of education, public charities, and laws for the suppression of intemperance and lotteries. He established through his personal exertions the State lunatic asylum at Worcester, and in 1833 was chairman of its board of trustees. He continued to be returned to the legislature as representative from Dedham till his removal to Boston in 1833, when he entered into partnership with Edward G. Loring. In the practice of his profession he adopted the principle never to take the unjust side of any cause, and he is said to have gained four fifths of the cases in which he was engaged, the influence that he exerted over the juries being due in a great measure to the confidence that all felt in his honesty of purpose. He was elected to the state senate from Boston in 1833, was its president in 1836-'7, and from the latter year till 1848 was secretary of the Massachusetts board of education. While in the legislature he was a member and part of the time chairman of the committee for the revision of the state statutes, and a large number of salutary provisions were incorporated into the code at his suggestion. After their enactment he was appointed one of the editors of the work, and prepared its marginal notes and its references to judicial decisions. On entering on his duties as secretary to the Massachusetts board of education he withdrew from all other professional or business engagements and from politics. He introduced a thorough reform into the school system of the state, procuring the adoption of extensive changes in the school law, establishing normal schools, and instituting county educational conventions. He ascertained the actual condition of each school by “school registers,” and from the detailed reports of the school committees made valuable abstracts that he embodied in his annual reports. Under the auspices of the board, but at his own expense, he went to Europe in 1843 to visit schools, especially in Germany, and his seventh annual report, published after his return, embodied the results of his tour. Many editions of this report were printed, not only in Massachusetts, but in other states, in some cases by private individuals and in others by legislatures, and several editions were issued in England. By his advocacy of the disuse of corporal punishment in school discipline he was involved in a controversy with some of the Boston teachers that resulted in the adoption of his views. By his lectures and writings he awakened an interest in the cause of education that had never before been felt. He gave his legal opinions gratuitously, superintended the erection of a few buildings, and drew plans for many others. In his “Supplementary Report” (1848) he said: “From the time I accepted the secretaryship in June, 1837, until May, 1848, when I tendered my resignation of it, I labored in this cause an average of not less than fifteen hours a day; from the beginning to the end of this period I never took a single day for relaxation, and months and months together passed without my withdrawing a single evening to call upon a friend.” In, the spring of 1848 he was elected to congress as a Whig, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John Quincy Adams. His first speech in that body was in advocacy of its right and duty to exclude slavery from the territories, and in a letter in December of that year he said: “I think the country is to experience serious times. Interference with slavery will excite civil commotion in the south. But it is best to interfere. Now is the time to see whether the Union is a rope of sand or a band of steel.” Again he said: “I consider no evil as great as slavery, and I would pass the Wilmot proviso whether the south rebel or not.” During the first session he volunteered as counsel for Drayton and Sayres, who were indicted for stealing seventy-six slaves in the District of Columbia, and at the trial was engaged for twenty-one successive days in their defence. In 1850 he was engaged in a controversy with Daniel Webster in regard to the extension of slavery and the fugitive-slave law. Mann was defeated by a single vote at the ensuing nominating convention by Mr. Webster's supporters; but, on appealing to the people as an independent anti-slavery candidate, he was re-elected, serving from April, 1848, till March, 1853. In September, 1852, he was nominated for governor of Massachusetts by the Free-soil party, and the same day was chosen president of Antioch college, Yellow Springs, Ohio. Failing in the election for governor, he accepted the presidency of the college, in which he continued until his death. He carried that institution through pecuniary and other difficulties, and satisfied himself of the practicality of co-education. His death was hastened by his untiring labors in his office. He published, besides his annual reports, his lectures on education, and his voluminous controversial writings, “A Few Thoughts for a Young Man” (Boston, 1850); “Slavery: Letters and Speeches” (1851); “Powers and Duties of Woman” (1853); and “Sermons” (1861). See “Life of Horace Mann,” by his wife (1865); “Life and Complete Works of Horace Mann” (2 vols., Cambridge, 1869); and “Thoughts selected from the Writings of Horace Mann” (1869). His lectures on education were translated into French by Eugène de Guer, under the title of “De l'importance de l'éducation dans une république,” with a preface and biographical sketch by Edouard R. L. Laboulaye (Paris, 1873).  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume IV, pp. 190-191.


MANN, Joel, Salem, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Manager, 1842-43.


MANSFIELD, L. Delos, New York, American Abolition Society.

(Radical Abolitionist, Volume 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)



Sources:
Dictionary of American Biography, Volumes I-X, Edited by Dumas Malone, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volumes I-VI, Edited by James Grant Wilson & John Fiske, New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1888-1889.