Weld, Theodore Dwight (1803–1895)

US abolitionist. He was an ardent opponent of slavery, and gave forceful lectures, trained workers for the American Anti-Slavery Society, and wrote influential pamphlets, most notably the influential American Slavery As It Is (1839). He was an adviser to an antislavery bloc in Congress in the early 1840s and recruited prominent people, such as Harriet Beecher Stowe to abolitionism.

Weld was born in Hampton, Connecticut. After attending Hamilton College and the Oneida Institute, which stressed manual labour in education, he was influenced by Presbyterian evangelist Charles Grandison Finney to devote himself to promoting reforms such as temperance. He went on to study at the Lane Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he became a leader in student antislavery meetings. When the board of trustees passed regulations in 1834 limiting the rights of students to engage in antislavery activities, Weld led a walkout which made him a prominent figure in the antislavery movement. He married fellow abolitionist Angelina Grimké in 1838. He and his wife later opened schools in New Jersey and Massachusetts. After the Civil War he became a crusader for women's rights.