John L. Carey
{{Short description|American writer}}
{{For|information about other persons with the name John Carey|John Carey (disambiguation){{!}}John Carey}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = John L. Carey
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| death_date = December 1852
| death_place = New Orleans, Louisiana
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| occupation = Writer, newspaper editor, politician
| nationality = American
| education =
| period = Antebellum South
| genre = Journalism, essays
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John L. Carey was a member of the General Assembly of Maryland in 1843 and a newspaper editor in Maryland in the years leading up to the American Civil War.[http://msaweb/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/016100/016196/html/msa16196.html]{{Dead link|date=November 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Maryland State Archives biographical file on John L. Carey {{dead link|date=September 2012}} He is known for his writing on the question of slavery, which was a subject in a number of his letters and books. He was editor of the American and Commercial Daily Advertiser in Baltimore for twelve years.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/edgarallanpoemas0000whal |url-access=registration |last=Whalen |first=Terence|title=Edgar Allan Poe and the Masses: The Political Economy of Literature|location=Princeton, NJ|publisher=Princeton University Press|date=1999|pages=[https://archive.org/details/edgarallanpoemas0000whal/page/132 132] |isbn=9780691001999 }}
In 1845, physician and planter Richard Sprigg Steuart published an open letter to Carey in Baltimore, addressing the slavery question.Richard Sprigg Steuart, Letter to John Carey 1845, [https://archive.org/stream/lettertojohnlcar00steu/#page/4/mode/2up p.4.] Retrieved July 2012 Carey and Steuart were both members of the Maryland State Colonization Society, believing that free American blacks should be resettled in an African colony.
Career
Carey wrote a number of letters, books and essays on the subject, including Slavery in Maryland - Briefly Considered, published in Baltimore in 1845.[https://archive.org/details/slaveryinmaryla00caregoog/page/n11 Carey, John L., Slavery in Maryland - Briefly Considered] Retrieved July 2012 Carey's conflicted position on slavery reflected the wider division of attitudes in Maryland prior to the Civil War. On one hand, Carey could not imagine a world in which the two races coexisted peacefully in liberty and, like many other Southerners, he deeply resented the pressure from Northern abolitionists. On the other hand, he sought a solution to the problem of slavery through peaceful resettlement of former slaves and free blacks in Africa.[https://books.google.com/books?id=BiTvvwWHgugC&pg=PA133 Clark, p133] Retrieved July 2012 Carey was a member of the Maryland State Colonization Society, an organization formed to "return", more accurately, relocate free black Americans (most of whom were native to the United States, often for generations) to the west coast of Africa, in what is today Liberia.[https://books.google.com/books?id=VOgRAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA14 p. 14, Journal of the Maryland Colonization Society] Retrieved July 2012
Carey was editor of the Baltimore American & Commercial Daily Advertiser for 12 years. Hired by the Crescent newspaper, he moved to New Orleans.
Death
He died from cholera in New Orleans in December 1852. He had moved there to become editor of the Crescent.[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=srRBAAAAIBAJ&sjid=FbgMAAAAIBAJ&pg=7399%2C6292811 American & Commercial Advertiser, December 16, 1852]
Published works
- [https://archive.org/details/somethoughtscon00cargoog Some Thoughts Concerning Domestic Slavery, Baltimore (1838)]
- [https://archive.org/details/slaveryinmaryla00caregoog/page/n11 Slavery in Maryland - Briefly Considered, Baltimore (1845)]
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=-hoKRAAACAAJ&q=john+l+carey+slavery Slavery and the Wilmot Proviso; With Some Suggestions for a Compromise (c1846)]
References
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=BiTvvwWHgugC&pg=PA133 Clark, Susan E., The Work of Cities]
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=kEwkUwwtemgC&pg=PA118 Grivno, Max L., p.118, "There Slavery Cannot Dwell": Agriculture and Labor in Northern Maryland]
Notes
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Category:Journalists from New Orleans
Category:Members of the Maryland General Assembly
Category:Editors of Maryland newspapers
Category:Year of birth missing
Category:Deaths from cholera in the United States