Jesse Torrey facts for kids

Portrait of Jesse Torrey (1912)

Jesse Torre, Jr., depicted recording the narrative of free people who had been kidnapped

Jesse Torrey, Jr., (May 25, 1787 – ca. 1834) was a Philadelphia physician who gathered first-hand narratives by African Americans and eye-witness accounts by white observers of slavery and kidnapping. He published these, along with his personal observations, in an early anti-slavery book, A Portraiture of Slavery in the United States (Philadelphia, 1817). He also wrote juvenile guides to moral philosophy and natural history. He was born in New Lebanon, New York; his father was Jesse Torrey, and he had a brother, Royal Torrey.