Item #34985 A REVIEW OF THE PROSECUTION AGAINST ABNER KNEELAND, FOR BLASPHEMY. BY A COSMOPOLITE. Abner Kneeland, David? Henshaw.

A REVIEW OF THE PROSECUTION AGAINST ABNER KNEELAND, FOR BLASPHEMY. BY A COSMOPOLITE.

Boston: 1835. 32pp. Disbound, Good+.

Kneeland's trial for blasphemy-- for which he spent sixty days in a Boston jail-- "strikes at the root of the liberty of conscience, and the freedom of the Press; and involves in its consequences the preservation or the destruction of the free institutions of this country." The revered Massachusetts Constitution guarantees "to all citizens freely to express and openly to publish their opinions upon religious subjects."
"Kneeland was accused of being an atheist and underwent five trials on charges of blasphemy... The prosecution portrayed his blasphemy as part of a pattern with his social thought. They were, in effect, trying him not just for his theology, but for his politics. For Kneeland had not only denounced the conservative influence of religion on society, but he had called for equal rights for women and equality of races. He had suggested women keep their own name and bank accounts. He had spoken out in favor of birth control, divorce, and interracial marriage. The prosecuting attorney for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts warned the jury that if Kneeland were not punished, 'marriages [will be] dissolved, prostitution made easy and safe, moral and religious restraints removed, property invaded, and the foundations of society broken up, and property made common'." [Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography].
Cohen 13341. McCoy K150. Item #34985

Price: $350.00

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