Henry G. Ludlow

Who was Henry G. Ludlow?

Henry G. Ludlow was an American minister and abolitionist, and one of those who worked with the New York Amistad Committee.

He was a divinity student at Yale and then minister of the First Congregational Church in Oswego. From 1828-1837 he was the minister of the Spring Street Presbyterian Church in the Five Points neighborhood of New York City. That church, and Ludlow's home, were partially demolished in July 1834 in one of several nights of anti-abolitionist rioting prompted in part by rumors that Ludlow had presided over a mixed-race marriage.

His son, the author Fitz Hugh Ludlow, later wrote: "my father, mother, and sister were driven from their house in New York by a furious mob. When they came cautiously back, their home was quiet as a fortress the day after it has been blown up. The front-parlor was full of paving-stones; the carpets were cut to pieces; the pictures, the furniture, and the chandelier lay in one common wreck; and the walls were covered with inscriptions of mingled insult and glory. Over the mantel-piece had been charcoaled 'Rascal'; over the pier-table, 'Abolitionist.'"