Phelps graduated from Yale College in 1826 and
Yale Divinity School in 1830. After serving as a pastor in Congregational churches in
Hopkinton and Boston, Massachusetts, he became an agent of the
American Anti-Slavery Society in 1834. From 1837 to 1839, he served as the General Agent of the
Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. In 1839, he left the
Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society and became one of the founding members of the
Massachusetts Abolition Society, formed by abolitionists who disagreed with
William Lloyd Garrison's progressive, and sometimes radical, politics. In 1840, he also joined forces with a group that formed the
American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. He died on July 27, 1847. ==Personal life==