Amos Dresser

Dresser was born in Peru, Massachusetts, and was a descendant of Robert Cushman, a Mayflower pilgrim. His father died when he was an infant; he lived with his mother, Minerva Cushman, and his mother's second husband, Henry Pierce, until his mother’s death in 1826, when Amos was 13. To prepare for the ministry, in 1830 he enrolled in the new Oneida Institute of Science and Industry, a manual labor school near Utica, New York, predecessor of Oberlin, and briefly the most abolitionist school in the country. He was one of the first to join a group, led by Theodore Weld, that left Oneida, eventually enrolling as students at the new Lane Seminary near Cincinnati, Ohio.{{Cite book |publisher=The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. == The whipping in Nashville ==

During the summer of 1835, in order to raise money to further his education, Dresser traveled around the South selling the Cottage Bible. of sixty prominent citizens. He was sentenced to "twenty stripes on his bare back", which were carried out in public. The Committee claimed that were it not for them, he would have been lynched.{{Cite news The Nashville Republican published a special issue on the incident.{{cite news Dresser published in the Cincinnati Daily Gazette the story of what had happened to him, twice had it reprinted in pamphlets, plus the American Anti-Slavery Society issued it the following year, accompanied by other testimony on slavery. He later spoke of it many times, in the course of abolitionist lectures.{{Cite news In 1836, he became a successful lecturer for the American Anti-Slavery Society. He worked for abolitionist leader Henry B. Stanton in Worcester County, Massachusetts, lecturing at Athol, Massachusetts, Ashburn, and Slatersville, Rhode Island. He then went to Berkshire County, Massachusetts, and in 1839 to Jamaica to assist another Lane Rebel, David Ingraham, in missionary work among the "Negroes". == Dresser's later life ==

Dresser returned to Ohio and, along with other Lane Rebels, enrolled at the Oberlin Collegiate Institute, where he obtained a degree in 1839. While a student at Oberlin he supported himself by working for the American Anti-Slavery Society as a lecturer. After completing his studies, he married Adeline Smith, a former Oberlin student, and from 1839 to 1841 they were missionaries in Jamaica. Among their children was Amos Dresser Jr. From 1852 to 1865 Dresser was pastor of churches in Trumbull and Ashtabula Counties, Ohio, He spoke on this topic to the Ashtabula (Ohio) Bible Society in 1858. == References ==