Samuel Joseph May

Samuel Joseph May (September 12, 1797 – July 1, 1871) was an American reformer during the nineteenth century who championed education, women's rights, and abolition of slavery. May argued on behalf of all working people that the rights of humanity were more important than the rights of property, and advocated for minimum wages and legal limitations on the amassing of wealth. He was born on September 12, 1797, in an upper-class Boston area. May was the son of Colonel Joseph May, a merchant, and Dorothy Sewell, who was descended from or connected to many of the leading families of colonial Massachusetts, including the Quincys and the Hancocks. His sister was Abby May Alcott, mother of novelist Louisa May Alcott. In 1825, he married Lucretia Flagge Coffin with whom he had five children. Author Eve LaPlante, who wrote several books about his sister Abby May Alcott and a book about Sewall ancestor Judge Samuel Sewall, is one of his direct descendants. Education and early career May was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1797 to Joseph May and Dorothy May (née Sewall). When he was four years old his six year old brother Edward died while they were at play in their barn. May claimed that the loss of his brother and the dreams he had following the fatal accident led him to devote his life to God and inspired his passion to "rectify the world's wrongs." He started attending Harvard in 1813 at the age of fifteen; during his junior year he chose to become a minister. In addition, while he was at Harvard and afterwards, he taught school in Concord, Massachusetts. During this time, he met many prominent Unitarians and activists, including Noah Worcester, who instilled in May the idea of peaceful opposition. He was in a party that was one of the first to travel on the Crawford Path, opened in 1819 by Abel and Ethan Crawford as a route to the summit of Mount Washington, New Hampshire, and today considered to be the oldest White Mountains trail in continuous use. May graduated from Harvard Divinity School in 1820 and became a Unitarian minister. (See Harvard Divinity School and Unitarianism.) Following his graduation, he considered preaching in New York City and Richmond, Virginia, prior to accepting a position in Brooklyn, Connecticut, as the only Unitarian minister in that state. He came to the forefront of the Unitarian movement and became well known throughout New England as he attempted to make reforms and establish Unitarian churches.