Amos Adams Lawrence (July 31, 1814 – August 22, 1886), the son of famed philanthropist Amos Lawrence, was a key figure in the United States abolition movement in the years leading up to the Civil War, and instrumental in the establishment of the University of Kansas and Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Biography[edit]

Lawrence was born in Groton, Massachusetts^[1] or Boston^[2][3] and educated at Groton Academy (now Lawrence Academy at Groton) and Harvard College. He then entered business for himself as a commission merchant and eventually became owner of Ipswich Mills, the largest producer of knit goods in the country located in Ipswich, Massachusetts. In addition, he was a devout member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Boston, where he met and married his wife, Sarah Appleton (a relative of Samuel Appleton), as well as a trustee of Massachusetts General Hospital and president of the Young Men's Benevolent Society.

Lawrence was radicalized by living through the Anthony Burns affair in the spring of 1854: "[W]e went to bed one night old fashioned, conservative, Compromise Union Whigs & waked up stark mad Abolitionists."^[4] Lawrence became a key figure in the United States abolition movement in the years leading up to the Civil War, during which he contributed large amounts of capital to the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company and John Brown's abolitionism, played a major role in the crucial border state of Kansas (see Kansas-Nebraska Act), and also contributed to funds for the colonization of free negroes in Liberia. He contributed personally for the famous Sharp rifles, which, packed as “books” and “primers,” were shipped to Kansas and afterwards came into the hands of Brown. During the contest in Kansas, Lawrence wrote frequently to President Franklin Pierce (his mother's nephew) in behalf of the free-state settlers; and when John Brown was arrested he appealed to the governor of Virginia to secure for him a lawful trial. He repeatedly urged the necessity of offering no armed resistance to the Federal government, and he deplored Brown's fanaticism. In 1858 and 1860 he was the Whig candidate for governor of Massachusetts.