The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Kneeland, Abner

KNEELAND, nē'lănd, Abner, American theologian and deist: b. Gardner, Mass., 6 April 1774; d. Farmington, Iowa, 27 Aug. 1884. He was at first Baptist then entered the Universalist ministry, but later became deist. He edited Universalist literature at Philadelphia and New York, then went to Boston where he founded (1831) the Investigator. His expressed tenets brought him into the Boston Supreme Court (1836) where he was given a short sentence of imprisonment as guilty of blasphemy. He wrote ‘The New Testament in Greek and English’ (Philadelphia 1822); ‘Lectures on the Doctrine of Universal Salvation’ (1824); ‘A Review of the Evidences of Christianity’ (New York 1829) . Consult Kneeland, A., ‘Review of the Trial, Conviction and Final Imprisonment . . . of A. Kneeland’ (Boston 1838); Parker, S. D., ‘Report of the Arguments of the Attorney . . . at the Trial of A. Kneeland’ (ib., 1834); ‘Review of the Prosecution against A. Kneeland’ (in Cosmopolite, ib. 1853),