Prudence Crandall’s Legacy. Donald E. Williams

Burleigh did not impress May at first. Burleigh came in from the fields in his ragged farm clothes. He had a scruffy beard. Twenty-two years old, Burleigh taught in the local district school and studied law while helping his parents tend to their farm. As May and Burleigh talked about the antislavery movement, however, May heard the voice of the writer who wrote the eloquent article in the Emancipator. May trusted his instincts and immediately offered the job of newspaper editor to Charles. When May promised to help find a person to take Burleigh’s place at the family farm, Charles accepted.³³ Burleigh began his new career in publishing the very next Monday, July 15, 1833.

      17. Charles C. Burleigh, editor of the Unionist. He favored immediate emancipation, equal rights for women, and repeal of the death penalty.

      Charles C. Burleigh. From Wendell Phillips Garrison and Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805–1879: The Story of His Life Told by His Children, vol. 3 (New York: Century, 1885), 226.