Jonathan Blanchard

Who was Jonathan Blanchard?

Jonathan Blanchard was an American pastor, educator, social reformer, and abolitionist. Born in Vermont, Blanchard attended Middlebury College before accepting a teaching position in New York. In 1834, he left to study at Andover Theological Seminary, but departed in 1836 after the college rejected agents from the American Anti-Slavery Society. Blanchard joined the group as one of Theodore Dwight Weld's "seventy" and preached in favor of abolition in southern Pennsylvania.

Blanchard graduated from Lane Seminary in 1838 and was soon ordained to preach at Sixth Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. There, he helped publish abolitionist newspaper The Philanthropist and represented Ohio at the 1843 World Anti-Slavery Convention. In 1845, he was named president of Knox College in Illinois, but was forced out thirteen years later. Blanchard is credited with the founding of Wheaton College in 1860, where he presided until 1882. Following the Civil War, Blanchard focused on fighting secret societies through his National Christian Association. He was a leader in the resurrected Anti-Masonic party and once campaigned for its Presidential nomination.