Oren Burbank Cheney

rdf:langString Oren Burbank Cheney

rdf:langString Oren Burbank Cheney

rdf:langString Oren Burbank Cheney

rdf:langString Lewiston, Maine, U.S.

rdf:langString Holderness, New Hampshire, U.S.

rdf:langString Lewiston, Maine, U.S.

rdf:langString SVGOrenCheney.png

rdf:langString none

rdf:langString He served as president at the college's founding, although there is a discrepancy with its founding date.

rdf:langString Abolitionist, university founder, state representative

rdf:langString Member of the Maine House of Representatives from the 86th district

rdf:langString Abigail and Moses Cheney

rdf:langString Republican Party

rdf:langString Free Soil Party

rdf:langString Liberty Party

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rdf:langString death

rdf:langString Caroline A. Rundlett

rdf:langString Nancy S. Perkins

rdf:langString Oren Burbank Cheney (December 10, 1816 – December 22, 1903) was an American politician, minister, and statesman who was a key figure in the abolitionist movement in the United States during the later 19th century. Along with textile tycoon Benjamin Bates, he founded the first coeducational university in New England (the Bates College) which is widely considered his magnum opus. Cheney is one of the most extensively covered subjects of Neoabolitionism, for his public denouncement of slavery, involuntary servitude, and advocation for fair and equal representation, egalitarianism, and personal sovereignty. Cheney's main social ideology was that of egalitarianism; he personally voiced his disdain for racial inequality, social elitism, and socioeconomic depravation regularly, in controversial speeches and articles. He was ordained a minister in his early twenties, became the headmaster at Parsonsfield, Maine, and illegally harbored and transferred slaves to safety during the 1840s in New Hampshire–an action punishable with a decade's jail time by the federal Fugitive Slave acts. His religious community work garnered him widespread support, culminating in his nomination for a seat in the Maine House of Representatives without his knowledge. Having been told he was nominated and elected on his way to his induction ceremony, Cheney would go on to be an able Free Soil legislator. His first bills drafted and passed supported state prohibition, advocated for temperance, regulated liquor traffic (notably the passage of the Maine Liquor Law), and provided the funds for his first school–the Lebanon Academy in Lebanon, Maine. He gave many abolitionist speeches to the legislature, which produced mixed reactions and death threats; historians have occasionally noted him as "completely and utterly careless with his life." He was elected as the only delegate to attend the 1852 Free Soil Party Convention in Pittsburgh from Maine, where he famously advocated for anti-slavery, and physically threatened the owner of a local tavern for refusing to serve Frederick Douglass, a noted abolitionist and black member of the party. After his political career, he continued to publish anti-slavery pieces in his newspaper, and establish the Maine State Seminary, which would later be named "Bates College." He governed as the first President of Bates College for nearly four decades–from 1855 to 1894–creating its liberal arts curriculum, hiring faculty, and choosing its campus; during this time he adopted the moniker O.B. Cheney.

rdf:langString Person & Elisas Hutchins Cheney