Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/302

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
274
BLACKMAN
BLACKWELL

Black Hawk took place on the 27th. Black Hawk, his two sons, and seven other head warriors who were detained as hostages were taken through the principal eastern cities, and then confined in Fortress Monroe until 5 June, 1833. Black Hawk was deposed, and Keokuk made chief of the Sacs and Foxes, who to the number of about 3,000 were removed to the region about Fort Des Moines. A “Life of Black Hawk” from his own lips, edited by J. B. Patterson, was published in 1834. See his “Life,” by Benjamin Drake, also Drake's “Indian Biography,” and “Life of Black Hawk,” by W. J. Snelling.


BLACKMAN, George Curtis, surgeon, b. in Newtown, Conn., 20 April, 1819; d. in Avondale, Ohio, 19 July, 1871. He was graduated at the college of physicians and surgeons. New York city, in 1840, and in 1854 became professor of surgery in the medical college of Ohio, at Cincinnati. During the war he served as an army surgeon. He was a bold and skilful operator, and an able writer and lecturer. He translated and edited Vidal's "Treatise on Venereal Disease" (New York, 1854), edited a new edition of Mott's translation of Velpeau's "Surgery," with notes and additions of his own, and was a frequent contributor to medical journals. He was a member of the society of physicians and surgeons in London.


BLACKMAN, Learner, missionary, b. in New Jersey about 1781; d. in Ohio in 1815. He entered the ministry of the Metliodist Episcopal church in 1800; and it is said that the people among whom he was at first sent, interpreting his surname literally, thought they were to have a negro for their preacher. His appearance dispelled their fears, and he soon became popular. After preaching two years in Delaware, he removed to the west, and in 1805 was sent as a missionary to Natchez, Miss., then in a wild country, inhabited by Indians and pioneers. To reach his destination he travelled 800 miles on horseback. His labors did much to establish Methodism in that section of the country. In 1808 he went to Tennessee, where he labored with zeal and success. In 1815, while he was crossing the Ohio river at Cincinnati in a flat-boat, his horses became frightened and plunged into the water. In the effort to hold them, Mr. Blackman was dragged overboard and drowned.


BLACKSTONE, William, pioneer, d. in Rehoboth, Mass., 26 May. 1675. lie is supposed to have been a graduate of Emmanuel college, Cambridge, in 1617, and a clergyman of the church of England. He moved, about 1623, from Plymouth to the peninsula of Shawmut, or Trimountain, where Boston was afterward built, and was living there alone when Gov. Winthrop arrived at Charlestown in 1630. Blackstone went to Winthrop, told him of an excellent spring at Shawmut. and invited him thither. The governor and the greater part of the church accepted this invitation. The land, although Blackstone had occupied it first, belonged to the governor and company, and on 1 April, 1633, they gave him fifty acres, near his house, " to enjoy forever." Blackstone, however, did not like his Puritan neighbors, and in 1634 sold his estate to the -company for £30, which was raised by assessing six shillings or more on each inhabitant. He purchased cattle with the proceeds of his sale, and removed to a place on the river now called by his name, a few miles north of Providence. It is said that he planted the first orchard in Massachusetts, and also the first in Rhode Island Although the first white settler of Rhode Island, he took no part in founding the colony. He did not sympathize with Roger Williams, and always acknowledged allegiance to Massachusetts. While living near Providence he often preached in that town, and, when he grew too old to walk there, he was accustomed to ride upon a bull, as he owned no horse. After his death his place was plundered and his library burned by the Indians, in the war of 1675. The cellar of his house is still shown, and a small eminence near by, where he was accustomed to read, is known as "Study Hill." See "William Blackstone in his Relation to Massachusetts and Rhode Island" (New York, 1880).


BLACKWELL, Antoinette Louisa Brown, author and minister, b. in Henrietta, Monroe co., N. Y., 20 May, 1825. When sixteen years old she taught school, and then, after attending Henrietta academy, went to Oberlin, where she was graduated in 1847. She spent her vacations in teaching and in the study of Hebrew and Greek. In the winter of 1844 she taught in the academy at Rochester, N. Y., where she delivered her first lecture. After graduation she entered upon a course of theological study at Oberlin, and completed it in 1850. When she asked for the license to preach, usually given to the theological students, it was refused; but she preached frequently on her own responsibility. The four years following her graduation were spent in study, preaching, and in lecturing on literary subjects, temperance, and the abolition of slavery. At the woman's rights convention in Worcester, Mass., in 1850, Miss Brown was one of the speakers, and she has since been prominent in the movement. In 1853 she was regularly ordained pastor of the orthodox Congregational church of South Butler and Savannah, Wayne co., N. Y., but gave up her charge in 1854 on account of ill health and doctrinal doubts. In 1855 she investigated the character and causes of vice in New York city, and published, in a New York journal, a series of sketches entitled “Shadows of our Social System.” In 1856 she married Samuel C. Blackwell, brother of Elizabeth Blackwell. They have six children, and now live in Elizabeth, N. J. Mrs. Blackwell still preaches occasionally, and has become a Unitarian. She is the author of “Studies in General Science” (New York, 1869); “The Market Woman”; “The Island Neighbors” (1871); “The Sexes Throughout Nature” (1875); and “The Physical Basis of Immortality” (1876). She has in preparation (1886) “The Many and the One.”


BLACKWELL, Elizabeth, physician, b. in Bristol, England, in 1821. Her father emigrated with his family in 1832, and settled in New York, but removed in 1838 to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he died a few months afterward, leaving a widow and nine children almost destitute. Elizabeth, then seventeen years old, opened a school in connection with two elder sisters, and conducted it successfully for several years. A friend now suggested that she should study medicine, and she resolved to become a physician. At first she pursued