John Bachman
John Bachman (born February 4, 1790 in Rhinebeck , New York , † February 24, 1874 in Charleston , South Carolina ) was an American natural scholar and preacher.
Childhood and youth
Bachman comes from a farmer family with probably Swiss roots. His parents were Jacob Bachman and Eva Shop. He had two brothers, Jacob and Henry, and a sister named Eva. Bachman grew up on his parents' farm in Rennsalaer County. His early upbringing was shaped on the one hand by the religious instruction from his father, among other things based on the writings of Martin Luther , and on the other hand by life in nature. Apparently he sold beaver pelts in order to buy natural history books with the proceeds. Even as a boy he participated in negotiations with the Indian tribe of Oneida part. He was often out in the wilderness. Because of a tuberculosis illness , he had to drop out of school in Philadelphia , but was continued to teach at home by the Lutheran preacher Anton T. Braun. What is unconfirmed is that he went to school at Williams College in Williamstown , Massachusetts . On a trip to Philadelphia in 1810, the young Bachman met Alexander von Humboldt and Alexander Wilson , probably the first ornithologist in North America.
The Lutheran preacher
Bachman found his first employment at the school in Ellwood City , Pennsylvania , where he soon received permission to preach Lutheran . In 1814 he was in this denomination ordained . Shortly thereafter, he changed to pastor at St. John's Lutheran Church in Charleston (South Carolina) , not least because he hoped that the climate there would ease his breathing problems. Charleston remained the center of his life until his death. There he married his first wife Harriet Martin in 1816. Of the 14 children they shared, nine survived early childhood. Harriet Bachman died in 1846. Two years later, John Bachman married Maria, his first wife's sister.
In Charleston, Bachman began caring for the African-born slaves and freedmen. Although he himself was a slave owner , he taught numerous slaves to read and write, which at the time was at least socially unacceptable and in some cases also legally illegal. Numerous slaves were baptized by him and accepted into his congregation, where they made up up to 40 percent of the members. The congregation included Jenkins Drayton , who later served as a missionary in Liberia , and Jehu Jones , the first black American to be ordained a Lutheran minister .
Bachman was a founding member of the Lutheran Synod of South Carolina and chaired it twice (1824-1833, 1839-1840). In addition, he played a decisive role in the establishment of the Lutheran seminary in Pomaria in 1831 and the Newberry College, which still exists today, in 1853. He was the first chairman of the college's school board and directed its development in the early years.
In addition, he wrote several theological writings. With the most important work, A Defense of Luther and the Reformation , he intervened in 1853 in a dispute with Catholics in the region. From 1860 to 1862 he was co-editor of the Southern Lutheran newspaper .
The naturalist
Bachman remained true to his passion for nature as a minister and was quickly accepted into a circle of naturalists that had formed around the College of South Carolina and the College of Charleston. Bachman was mainly concerned with studies of birds, wildflowers and small mammals (especially rabbits ). He collected numerous plants and animals in the Charleston area. From the early 1820s he published articles in natural history publications. In 1833 he was one of the founders of the South Carolina Horticultural Society.
In 1831 the popular bird artist John James Audubon contacted Bachman. Audubon lived in his house for a month, and from then on the two naturalists stayed in constant contact. Audubon also encouraged Bachman's wife, Maria, to use her drawing talent. She became one of the first natural draftsmen in the USA and worked on various natural history publications during this time. In addition, Audubon's two sons married two of Bachman's daughters, who, however, died early of tuberculosis . In 1838 Bachman traveled to Europe, where he met Audubon and Alexander von Humboldt and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Berlin . In 1845 Bachmann was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 1848 he was appointed professor of natural history at the College of Charleston. He held this office until 1853.
Given the great success of Audubon's major work, Birds of America , they both decided to write a similarly comprehensive work on the mammals of North America. Audubon drew the animal drawings, while Bachman wrote most of the text and published the work with Audubon's sons. In 1851, after the death of John James Audubon, the book was published under the title Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America . From 1850 onwards, Bachman increasingly published articles in various natural history publications and gave zoological lectures.
Civil War and Final Years
John Bachman intervened in the conflicts that preceded the American Civil War . In the late 1840s, he began attacking the popular belief that blacks were of a different, lower race than white people. He based his book The Doctorine of the Unity of the Human Race on this conception in 1850 . However, he remained a slave owner and defended slavery itself. Although he also represented unionist views in some aspects, he ultimately supported the secession and on December 20, 1860, opened the decisive assembly for the secession of South Carolina with a prayer. During the war years he withdrew from public life and concentrated on pastoral care and nursing.
During the conquest of Charleston in 1865, Bachman was mistreated by Northern soldiers, so that from then on one arm was paralyzed, his science collection and library were destroyed. In 1871 he gave up his office as pastor, but continued to preach in retirement. John Bachman died on February 24, 1874 at the age of 84. He was buried in front of the altar in St. John's Lutheran Church.
Species named after Bachman
John James Audubon named several birds and mammals after Bachman: Vermivora bachmanii , Aimophila aestivalis bachmani , Haematopus bachmani , Sylvilagus bachmani, and Sciurus niger bachmani . Later the butterfly Libythaea bachmani was added.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bachman, John |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American naturalist and priest |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 4, 1790 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Rhinebeck , Pennsylvania |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 24, 1874 |
| Place of death | Charleston , South Carolina |