John Bachman

The Reverend John Bachman
Born	February 4, 1790 New York
Died	February 24, 1874 (aged 84)
Church	Pennsylvania Ministerium Lutheran Synod of South Carolina
Congregations served	St. John's Lutheran church in Charleston, South Carolina
Title	Ordained pastor

John Bachman (February 4, 1790 – February 24, 1874) was an American Lutheran minister, social activist and naturalist who collaborated with J.J. Audubon to produce Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America and whose writings, particularly Unity of the Human Race, were influential in the development of the theory of evolution. He helped to found Newberry College. Several species of animals are named in his honor.

Bachman served the same Charleston, South Carolina church as pastor for 56 years but still found time to conduct natural history studies that caught the attention of noted bird artist John James Audubon and eminent scientists in England, Europe, and beyond. He was a proponent of secular and religious education and helped found Newberry College and the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, as well as the South Carolina Lutheran Synod.

He was elected an Associate Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1845.

Bachman was a social reformer who ministered to African-American slaves as well as white Southerners, and who used his knowledge of natural history to become one of the first writers to argue scientifically that blacks and whites are the same species. His accomplishments span a lifetime punctuated by the unrest of the American Civil War—a conflict that caused him great consternation and may have brought about his premature death due to injuries suffered at the hands of Union soldiers.

Bachman's hare, Bachman's sparrow, and Bachman's warbler are named in his honor. The latter, now almost certainly extinct, was discovered in 1832 by Bachman, who presented study skins and descriptions to his friend and collaborator, John James Audubon. Audubon never saw the bird alive but named it in honor of Bachman. In 1816, Bachman discovered the marsh rice rat.