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BURRITT, ELIHU (1810–1879)

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 862 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BURRITT, ELIHU (1810–1879) , See also:American philanthropist, known as " the learned blacksmith," was See also:born in New See also:Britain, See also:Conn., on the 8th of See also:December 181o. His See also:father (a See also:farmer and shoemaker), and his grandfather, both of the same name, had served in the Revolutionary See also:army. An See also:elder See also:brother, See also:Elijah, who afterwards published The See also:Geography of the Heavens and other See also:text-books, went out into the See also:world while Elihu was still a boy, and after editing a See also:paper in See also:Georgia came back to New Britain and started a school. Elihu, however, had to pick up what knowledge he could get from books at See also:home, where his father's See also:long illness, ending in See also:death, made his services necessary. At sixteen he was apprenticed to a blacksmith, and he made this his See also:trade both there and at See also:Worcester, See also:Mass., where he removed in 1837. He had a See also:passion for See also:reading; from the See also:village library he borrowed See also:book after book, which he studied at his forge or in his spare See also:hours; and he managed to find See also:time for attending his brother's school for a while, and even for pursuing his See also:search for culture among the advantages to be found at New Haven. He mastered Latin, See also:Greek, See also:French, See also:Spanish, See also:Italian and See also:German, and by the See also:age of See also:thirty could read nearly fifty See also:languages. His extraordinary aptitude gradually made him famous. He took to lecturing, and then to an ardent crusade on behalf of universal See also:peace and human brotherhood, which made him travel persistently to various parts of the See also:United States and See also:Europe. In 1848 he organized the See also:Brussels See also:congress of See also:Friends of Peace, which was followed by See also:annual congresses in See also:Paris, See also:Frankfort, See also:London, See also:Manchester and See also:Edinburgh. He wrote and published voluminously, leaflets, See also:pamphlets and volumes, and started the See also:Christian See also:Citizen at Worcester to See also:advocate his humanitarian views. Cheap trans-oceanic See also:postage was an ideal for which he agitated wherever he went.

His vigorous philanthropy keeps the name of Elihu Burritt See also:

green in the See also:history of the peace See also:movement, apart from the fame of his learning. His See also:country-men, at See also:universities such as Yale and elsewhere, delighted to do him See also:honour; and he was U.S. See also:consul at See also:Birmingham from 1865 to 1870. He returned to See also:America and died at New Britain on the 9th of See also:March 1879. See See also:Life, by See also:Charles Northend, in the memorial See also:volume (1879); and an See also:article by Ellen Strong See also:Bartlett in the New See also:England See also:Magazine (See also:June, 1897).

End of Article: BURRITT, ELIHU (1810–1879)

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