{{Short description|American clergyman and writer}} {{Infobox person | name = Nehemiah Adams | image = Rev. Nehemiah Adams (cropped).jpg | alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software --> | caption = | birth_name = <!-- only use if different from name --> | birth_date = {{birth date|1806|2|19}} | birth_place = Salem, Massachusetts, US | death_date = {{Death date and age|1878|10|6|1806|2|19}} | death_place = | other_names = | occupation = clergyman | alma_mater = Harvard University, <br> Andover Theological Seminary | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = | signature = Signature of Rev. Nehemiah Adams.png }} Reverend '''Nehemiah Adams''' (February 19, 1806 – October 6, 1878) was an American clergyman and writer.
==Biography== He was born in Salem, Massachusetts,{{sfn|Gilman|Peck|Colby|1905}} in 1806 to Nehemiah Adams and Mehitabel Torrey Adams. He graduated from Harvard University in 1826, and from Andover Theological Seminary in 1829. That same year, he was ordained as co-pastor, with Abiel Holmes, of the First Congregational Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts.{{sfn|Wilson|Fiske|1900}} In 1832, he married Martha Hooper.
In 1834, he became pastor of Union Congregational Church in Boston, Massachusetts. He would remain in that position until his death in 1878.{{sfn|Wilson|Fiske|1900}} In 1850, he married again, to Sarah Brackett.
In 1854, he took a trip to the American South, and wrote a book entitled ''A South-Side View of Slavery'' (Boston, 1855).<ref name=Adams1855>{{cite book |last= Adams |first= Nehemiah |title= A Southside View of Slavery |publisher=T. R. Marvin |year=1855 |location=Boston |url= https://archive.org/details/asouthsideviews02adamgoog/page/n4/mode/2up}}</ref> In the book, he lauded slavery as beneficial to the Negroes' religious character.{{sfn|Gilman|Peck|Colby|1905}}{{sfn|Rines|1920|p=107}} This book was one of several polemic works he wrote. It caused a great sensation, and he received much hostile criticism. The book was attacked by abolitionists for its perceived moderation; the abolitionist newspaper ''The Liberator'' called it "as vile a work as was ever written, in apology and defence of 'the sum of all villanies'".<ref>{{cite news | title = THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. | work = The Liberator | date = June 19, 1957 | volume = XXVII | issue = 25 | page = 98 | url = http://fair-use.org/the-liberator/1857/06/19/the-liberator-27-25.pdf | access-date = August 22, 2017}}</ref> The abolitionist William Wells Brown criticized Adams.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rothman |first=Adam |date=2026 |title=Slip the Yoke and Change the Joke: How Abolitionists Used Runaway Slave Advertisements to Ridicule Slavery |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jaag014 |journal=Journal of American History |volume=112 |issue=4 |pages=659–679 |doi=10.1093/jahist/jaag014 |issn=0021-8723|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
In 1861, Adams wrote a successor volume, ''The Sable Cloud, a Southern Tale with Northern Comments'', to answer his attackers, and it was met with a similar response.<ref name=Adams1861>{{cite book |last= Adams |first=Nehemiah |author-mask=2 |title= The Sable Cloud: A Southern Tale, with Northern Comments |publisher= Ticknor and Fields |year=1861 |location=Boston |url= https://archive.org/details/sablecloudasout00adamgoog/mode/2up |ref=adams1861}}</ref>
He also wrote ''The Cross in the Cell'', ''Scriptural Argument for Endless Punishment'', ''Broadcast'', ''At Eventide'',{{sfn|Wilson|Fiske|1900}} and a ''Life of John Eliot''.{{sfn|Gilman|Peck|Colby|1905}} He was a member of the American Tract Society and the American Board for Foreign Missions.{{sfn|Wilson|Fiske|1900}}
In 1869, in consequence of his failing health, his people procured an associate pastor and gave Adams a long leave of absence. He made a voyage round the world and described it in ''Under the Mizzenmast: A Voyage Around the World'' (1871).{{sfn|Wilson|Fiske|1900}}
Adams died in 1878, aged 72. He left nine children. *Anna Hooper [b.d.8 Dec 1832] *Martha Hooper [b.8 Aug 1834-d.29 Sept 1862] married 8 June 1859 Thomas Joseph Lee *Catherine [b.1836-d.19 Jan 1857] *Rev William Hooper [b.8 Jan 1838-d.15 May 1880] married 1866 PAulina Thomas; married 1878 Margaret Holmes *Robert Chamblet [b.1 Dec 1839-d.10 Aug 1902] married MAry Eminy Job *Susan Gertrude [b.Apr 1841-d.19 Jan 1917] married Daniel Ward Job *Mary [b.Apr 25,1846-d.3 sept 1874] *Sarah [b.1847-d.1879]
==Notes== {{Reflist|20em}}
'''Attribution:''' *{{Appletons'|wstitle=Adams, Nehemiah|year=1900}}
==References== *{{Cite NIE|wstitle=Adams, Nehemiah|year=1905 }} *{{Cite Americana |wstitle=Adams, Nehemiah |year=1920 |page=107 }} *{{cite book |title=Who Was Who in America. Historical Volume 1607-1896 |location=Chicago |publisher= Marquis Who's Who |year=1963}}
==Further reading== {{wikiquote}} {{wikisource|works=or}} * {{Gutenberg author |id=5596| name=Nehemiah Adams}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Nehemiah Adams}} * [http://www.authorama.com/full/pdf/A-Southside-View-of-Slavery--Nehemiah-Adams.pdf A South-Side View of Slavery]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Nehemiah}} Category:1806 births Category:1878 deaths Category:Writers from Boston Category:Writers from Salem, Massachusetts Category:American Congregationalists Category:Harvard College alumni Category:Andover Theological Seminary alumni Category:19th-century American clergy