The Welsh and American Slavery

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Diddymwyr

Robert Everett

Born in Flintshire in 1791, Robert Everett was ordained a minister with the Congregationalists at Capel Lôn Swan, Denbigh, in 1815. He was called to take charge of the Welsh cause at Utica, New York, in 1823 and so he emigrated to the United States with his wife Elizabeth and their young children.

Emigrating to the USA

In 1838 he moved to Steuben, a rural Welsh community outside Utica. The Welsh Congregationalists of Steuben had two chapels 'Capel Uchaf' and 'Penymynydd' Chapel, and their Minister looked after both. Robert Everett would stay in this pastorate until his death in 1875.

It is difficult to know when exactly Robert Everett began speaking out against slavery, but he had started to work with prominent abolitionists in Utica and district by the middle of the 1830s.

"Y Cenhadwr Americanaidd"

In 1840 Everett began publishing Y Cenhadwr Americanaidd, a monthly publication which served the Welsh Congregationalists in the United States. He would continue to edit this influential magazine until his death. He used the magazine from the outset to attack slavery and to encourage the Welsh people in America to join the campaign for the abolition of that immoral regime.

By 1843 Y Cenhadwr Americanaidd was being published at the home of the Everett family in Steuben, with Robert Everett's sons running the printing press and his wife Elizabeth helping to read and correct the proofs.

"Y Dyngarwr"

In 1843 he began to publish another magazine, Y Dyngarwr, a monthly publication which concentrated on two topics only, the temperance movement and the campaign against slavery. Although there is a tendency today to look at temperance (namely the campaign against alcohol) as a movement that was 'dry' in more ways than one, it was a radical movement which tried to get rid of many social problems, and there was an obvious connection in Wales and in the United States between the temperance movement and the campaign for women's rights.

Indeed, Robert Everett campaigned for a number of radical causes, including the rights of women and pacifism as well as temperance. But it was the campaign against slavery that was closest to his heart and he dedicated most of his energy and time to that cause for over a quarter of a century.

Liberty Party

Some Welsh chapel-goers accused him of 'preaching politics from the pulpit' at the beginning, and others attacked him due to the exact nature of his politics; the Welsh Americans had tended to support the Whig Party, and the Welsh Whigs did not like to see a Welsh minister urging people to vote for another party.

But that is what Robert Everett did in the early 1840s, when the Liberty Party was formed, namely a radical new party which opposed slavery. On occasions when Robert Everett was preaching or holding a meeting in a chapel, the Welsh Whigs would throw eggs and hymn books at him from the chapel gallery!

1856 Election: supporting the Republicans

But Robert Everett battled on, and had amazing success in the end. By 1856, a new party, the Republicans, had taken over the mantle of the old Liberty Party. Don't let the political situation in the United States today confuse you: the Republicans in the 1850s were very different to the party which uses the same name today. It was a radical party to a great extent, a party which opposed efforts to extend slavery to new states.

The Republicans did not succeed in winning the election in 1856, but it was a significant year as regards our history: the Welsh Americans flocked to support the Republicans in 1856, and their support for that new party was largely based on its opposition to slavery

Robert Everett was now considered by many to be the moral leader of the Welsh Americans; in just 15 years, the despised radical at whom people used to throw eggs and hymn books had become the national leader of the American Welsh!

Election of Lincoln...and the Civil War

Another presidential election was held in 1860, and the winner then was the Republicans' candidate, Abraham Lincoln. And soon, Lincoln's victory caused a split which led to the Civil War. Although Robert Everett had supported pacifism at one time, he had already witnessed events that suggested that slavery would not disappear from the country without bloodshed; for example, his son's experiences in 'bleeding Kansas' during the 1850s.

Therefore when the Civil war broke out in 1861, Robert Everett supported the North (or the 'Union') describing the war as a crusade against slavery.

The USA's most famous Welshman

Although we remember Robert Everett mainly as the most prominent Welsh abolitionist in the United States, he was also a vitally important literary figure. His printing press (or the family press of the Everett family, bearing in mind that his wife and children helped with the work!) was one of the cornerstones of Welsh literary culture in America in the nineteenth century. At the time of his death in 1875, many believed that he was the most famous Welshman in the United States.

Further Reading:
Jerry Hunter, I Ddeffro Ysbryd y Wlad: Robert Everett a’r Ymgyrch yn erbyn Caethwasanaeth Americanaidd
Gwasg Carreg Gwalch Press, 2007.