Smith, Gerrit

Born: 1797-03-06 Utica, New York

Died: 1874-12-28 New York, New York

Alternate name: Smith, Gerritt

Gerrit Smith was a land speculator, lawyer, publicist, philanthropist, reformer, and abolitionist. The son of a wealthy land speculator, Smith graduated from Hamilton College in 1818. In 1822, he married Ann Carroll Fitzhugh, with whom he had four children. Smith assumed control of his father's land holdings in the 1820s and managed them from his home in Peterboro, New York. Smith invested heavily in religious and reform movements, especially abolitionism. In the 1840s, he became involved in the Liberty Party but refused to follow many of his contemporaries into the Free Soil Party. Abolitionists who remained with Smith and the Liberty Party nominated him for president in 1848 and again in 1856 and 1860, and expanded their goals to encompass a variety of reform efforts. Smith read law and gained admission to the bar in 1853, opening a practice in Peterboro. He won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1853 but resigned the following year in disgust over the Kansas-Nebraska Act. He returned to his law practice. As his faith in political abolitionism diminished in the 1850s, Smith began to support more violent means. He participated in an anti-slavery riot in Syracuse, New York, provided funds to Free-Soilers in Bleeding Kansas, and came into contact with John Brown. A member of the "secret six," Smith directly supported Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, and committed himself to the Utica State Lunatic Asylum when it failed. He was released after eight weeks. In 1860, Smith owned real property valued at $450,000 and had a personal estate of $150,000. During the Civil War, Smith supported the Republicans but pushed for quicker action against slavery.

John R. McKivigan, "Smith, Gerrit" American National Biography, ed. by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 20:187-88; Ralph Volney Harlow, Gerrit Smith: Philanthropist and Reformer (New York: H. Holt, 1939); Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774-1996 (Alexandria, VA: CQ Staff Directories, 1997), 1839-40; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Smithfield, Madison County, NY, 126; Gravestone, Peterboro Cemetery, Peterboro, NY.