Abner Kneeland was born in Gardner, Massachusetts back in 1774 to Timothy and Martha. I don’t have any information about his childhood, what school he attended and so on. Now let’s get to it. At 21 he attended a Baptist church and served as its lay preacher for a time. He converted to Universalism and was ordained as a minister. He served at various churches helping them organize hymnals while making his own translation of the New Testament. He also enjoyed debating in public with other theologians of the day.
It wasn’t long before he became skeptical of the revealed religion causing him to turn to freethinker and pantheist, this caused him and the Universalist Church to part ways. He edited a magazine in Philadelphia from 1821-1823. In 1832 he founded “The Investigator” an organ of free thought in Boston in 1832.
In 1838 he moved to Iowa where he started a small utopian community named Salubria, which is near present-day Farmington, Iowa. He died in 1844. During his lifetime he championed several things that were taboo during the time. Some of those were equal treatment for all people both under the law as well as by society. He supported the divorce rights for women, married women keeping their own names and property, interracial marriage and birth control. However, what will he be listed in the history books for? Well he was the last man to be jailed in the United States for blasphemy, being convicted in 1838 he served 60 days in prison back in 1838.
Comments(12)