J. Sella Martin

Biography

John Sella Martin (September 27, 1832 – August 11, 1876) escaped slavery in Alabama and became an influential abolitionist and pastor in Boston, Massachusetts. He was an activist for equality before the American Civil War and travelled to Britain to lecture against slavery. When he returned, he preached in Presbyterian churches in Washington, D.C. After the American Civil War, Martin returned to the South, working during the Reconstruction era in education in Alabama and Mississippi. A Republican, he became a politician in Louisiana and in 1872 was elected to the state legislature from Caddo Parish. In that year, the gubernatorial election was fiercely disputed, and the state legislature was ultimately taken over by the Democrats, en route to regaining control of the state government. Martin had an appointed position with the US Post Office and also wrote for the Louisianian newspaper.

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