Edward S. Abdy

Edward Strutt Abdy (1791–1846) was an English legal academic notable as an author on racism and race relations in the US.

Abdy was the fifth and youngest son of Thomas Abdy Abdy, of Albyns, Essex, by Mary, daughter of James Hayes, of Holliport, a bencher of the Middle Temple.

He was educated at Felsted School and Jesus College, Cambridge, where he obtained a fellowship (B.A. 1813; M.A. 1817). His death occurred at Bath, 12 Oct. 1846, at the age of 56. He was unmarried.

According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB), little is known of his life or work before or after publication of a three-volume Journal of a Residence and Tour in the United States of North America, from April 1833 to October 1834, reporting on a tour of US penal institutions made with members of the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline and the Reformation of Juvenile Offenders. The ODNB notes that Abdy had close contact with US abolitionists including Maria Weston Chapman, influenced William Ellery Chapman and Lydia Maria Child; and was involved in the formation of the (American) Anti-Slavery League.

In later life he took an interest in hydrotherapy, publishing The Water Cure. Cases of Disease cured by Cold Water (translated from the German), with remarks addressed to people of common sense, being a translation of a pamphlet by Rudolf von Falkenstein.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. 

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