John Dixon Long

Who was John Dixon Long?

John Dixon Long was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church and a leading U.S. abolitionist. His 1857 book, Pictures of Slavery in Church and State, was influential in abolitionist circles.

Long was born in New Town, Maryland to John W. Long, a slaveholder and former sea-captain. He credited his mother Sally Laws Henderson Long with inspiring his early antislavery sentiments. A devout member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, she died in 1828. Long's father died in 1834, leaving Long to support two sisters and brother.

Long was received into the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1835 and became a minister in 1839. Health problems forced him to give up his ministerial post in 1848.

In October 1856 Long moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he was dismayed by the level of support for slavery, although it was not legal in the commonwealth. This inspired Long to write a treatise on his experience of and views on slavery as it existed in his native state. Pictures of Slavery in Church and State; Including Personal Reminiscences, Biographical Sketches, Anecdotes, Etc. Etc.