The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Wright, Elizur

WRIGHT, Elizur, American abolitionist, b. South Canaan, Conn., 12 Feb. 1804; d. Medford, Mass., 21 Nov. 1885. He was graduated at Yale in 1886, was professor of mathematics in Western Reserve College in 1829-33, and became identified with the anti-slavery movement in the last-named year. He then removed to New York, where he edited Human Rights (1834-35), and the Quarterly Anti-Slavery Magazine (1837-38), and was at the same time secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society. Removing to Boston in 1838 he there edited the Massachusetts Abolitionist, the Daily Chronotype (1845), and The Commonwealth, its successor (1850). He published ‘Savings Banks Life Insurance’ (1872); ‘The Politics and Mysteries of Life Insurance’ (1873), etc., and was (1858-66) insurance commissioner of Massachusetts. He wrote an introduction to Whittier's poems (1844), and published a translation in verse of ‘La Fontaine's Fables’ (1859).