On December 2, 1859, African Americans, abolitionists, observers, and supporters arrived at Tremont Temple in Boston to pay homage to the fallen radical abolitionist John Brown at a gathering called the Day of Mourning. The speech was delivered by Rev. John Sella Martin, a former slaver, pastor of Joy Street Baptist Church. Four thousand supporters grieved and celebrated Brown. However, who was John Sella Martin?
John Sella Martin, an African American abolitionist, lecture, teacher, politician, and eloquent orator, became one of American’s most prolific antislavery speaker and activist of the nineteenth century. He was born enslaved in Charlotte, NC and sold away from his mother as a young child. Sold into the Deep South, Martin ended up
