James Gillespie Birney

Birney, James Gillespie (1792–1857), U.S. abolitionist. Birney, who came from an old slave-owning family, freed his slaves in 1834. He launched the abolitionist newspaper the Philanthropist in 1836, became executive secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1837, and founded the Liberty Party, standing as its presidential candidate in 1840 and 1844.

See also: Abolitionism.