February 4, 1792

Abolitionist James Gillespie Birney was born in Kentucky. A slaveholding plantation owner and attorney, Birney moved to Madison County in 1818 and became a prominent local politician and state legislator. He held conflicting views on slavery throughout his life and used his influence to promote antislavery provisions in all levels of government, including several in Alabama’s first constitution. He later worked for the American Colonization Society, promoting the immigration of free blacks to Liberia, and the American Anti-Slavery Society, where he advocated for immediate and widespread emancipation. Birney freed the slaves on his own plantations in the 1830s and twice ran as the presidential candidate for the abolitionist Liberty Party.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

James G. Birney. (Published by N. Currier, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

James G. Birney (1792-1857) was an influential lawyer and abolitionist, despite being from a slave-holding family. He owned a plantation in Triana, Madison County, and operated a law practice in Huntsville in the early decades of the nineteenth century. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, photo courtesy of Alabama Mosaic)

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