Charles Follen
Charles Follen, originally named Karl Follenius, was a notable German-American abolitionist and educator born to a prominent family in Germany. He began his academic journey at a young age but soon became involved in political activism against Napoleonic rule. After a series of events, including a friend's assassination of a conservative writer, Follen fled to Switzerland and later immigrated to the United States, where he made significant contributions to education as Harvard's first German instructor. During his tenure, he authored essential textbooks and briefly served as a lecturer in ethics.
Follen's interests evolved towards Unitarianism, and he became a dedicated abolitionist, advocating against slavery through lectures and articles. His passionate stance on social justice garnered both admiration and controversy, leading to conflicts within the Harvard community and the eventual non-renewal of his teaching contract. Despite these challenges, he was ordained as a Unitarian minister and continued his activism until his untimely death in a tragic steamer accident in Long Island Sound. Follen's legacy resides in his commitment to social reform and his influence on contemporaries in the abolitionist movement.
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Charles Follen
Professor
- Born: September 4, 1796
- Birthplace: Romrod, Germany
- Died: January 13, 1840
- Place of death: In the Long Island Sound, New York
Biography
Famous abolitionist Charles Follen was born Karl Follenius in Germany, the son of a prominent judge. He entered the local university before turning seventeen, but soon became interested in political activism, joining a group of students and volunteers rebelling against Napoleon. After a friend of Follen’s assassinated a well-known conservative writer, Follen was forced to relocate to Switzerland, where he lectured on law and philosophy at the University of Basel. Before long, however, his political dissidence brought censure from the local government as well as extradition proceedings by the Prussian government. Having made the acquaintance of Lafayette in Paris briefly, he immigrated to the United States.
Before long he became an instructor of German at Harvard, teaching the first such classes ever taught in any American university. The curriculum was so new that Follen had to write his own texts (A German Reader for Beginners, in 1826, and A Practical Grammar of the German Language in 1828, which were reprinted a number of times). He would eventually also become a lecturer in ethics at the Harvard Divinity School, although he would hold this position only a short time before political reasons caused him to resign. Also during his early years in Massachusetts, Follen became interested in Unitarianism—he would eventually become a Unitarian minister.
In September of 1828, he married a woman of the higher social echelons, Eliza Lee Cabot, who would bear their son in 1830. Follen became an American citizen later that same year. Although Boston was fascinated with Follen’s German culture and liberal politics, his wife gave him further access to the powerful and important people of New England. As his popularity as a teacher and a speaker grew, he came to know many of the important thinkers of his day, including writer and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, abolitionist and writer (and father of Louisa May Alcott) Bronson Alcott, and Transcendentalist editor Margaret Fuller.
In keeping with his youthful political zeal, Follen became a dedicated abolitionist. He discussed slavery’s great injustice in his “Lectures on Moral Philosophy” in 1830, going on to join the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1834. He delivered a scathing article on slavery, “Address to the People of the United States,” at the Society’s first convention. The scornful tone and radical ideas (for his time) did not sit well with the more powerful members of the Harvard community. Despite Follen’s great popularity as a teacher, he was seen as an agitator for student dissent and as a result his contract was not renewed after 1835. Undeterred, he became ordained as a Unitarian minister in the months that followed, and, taking the sacrifice of Christ as his model, dedicated himself even further to his cause of ending slavery. He published an article in the Quarterly Anti-Slavery Magazine that showed his belief that democracy was failing, as indicated by injustices done to women and slaves.
Follen died young. While returning from the presentation of a series of lectures New York, his steamer ship caught fire and sank in the Long Island Sound, carrying most of the passengers and crew (including Follen) along with it.