Elizur Wright
Encyclopedia
Elizur Wright was an American
mathematician
and abolitionist. He is sometimes described as the "father of life insurance" for his pioneering work on actuarial tables. He is also sometimes called the "father of insurance regulation", as he campaigned that life insurance companies must keep reserves, and served as Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner.
family who held anti-slavery beliefs and instilled in him a strict moral character. In 1826, Wright graduated from Yale
and began to teach, first in Groton, Massachusetts
, then at Hudson, Ohio
as a mathematics and philosophy professor at Western Reserve College. It was during this time that Wright first encountered the writings of William Lloyd Garrison
. Garrison's pamphlet, "Thoughts on African Colonization," persuaded Wright to believe that slavery should immediately be abolished, and that the American Colonization Society
's effort to deport free blacks to an African colony was immoral and ineffective.
in Ohio
. According to Frank Preston Stearns
, he became interested in life insurance
as a mathematical
study and read "the best works on life insurance ... with the same ardor with which young ladies devour an exciting novel."
In the spring of 1852 an insurance broker
"placed an advertising booklet in his hand... Elizur Wright looked it over and perceived quickly enough that no company could undertake to do what this one pretended to and remain solvent. The booklet served him for an editorial," and he embarked on a successful crusade to reform
the insurance industry.
He developed actuarial tables and the mathematics for calculating life insurance
premiums. He campaigned for valuation laws requiring life insurance companies to hold sufficient reserves
to guarantee that benefits would be paid, and nonforfeiture laws requiring the companies to provide cash surrender values. He also served as state commissioner of insurance for Massachusetts
, from 1858 to 1866.http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~gsimon/Wright01.pdf
He invented a form of cylindrical slide rule
.
, Theodore Weld, James Birney
, and other like-minded individuals, Wright founded the American Anti-Slavery Society
in 1833. Wright became the national secretary of the organization. At this time, the American Anti-Slavery Society espoused the immediate abolition of slavery, called for an end to all racial prejudice and equality for all. To effect this change, members practiced a policy of "moral suasion," an appeal to people's ethics
in an attempt to get them to embrace abolitionism and renounce slavery as sinful.
Wright edited a large number of publications, including The Emancipator and the Quarterly Anti-Slavery Magazine. He was also involved in "The Great Postal Campaign"a project whose job was to distribute abolitionist material across the country. The Anti-Slavery Society was successful in recruiting agents throughout the country to spread their message, but when Garrison and others began to broaden the scope of the Society to include women's rights and took on an anti-religion, anti-government tone, Wright and others objected and began to split from the Society in 1840.
Wright became involved with the newly created Liberty Party
and began to separate from the evangelists
and the religious anti-slavery movements, believing that government intervention was the way to abolition. Wright was arrested and charged for aiding in the escape of the first black man to be seized in New England
under the Fugitive Slave Act. He was not convicted. He edited the Massachusetts Abolitionist and the Chronotype before eventually becoming estranged from the abolitionist movement altogether. Moreover, due partially to disappointment in the Church's lack of support for the Abolitionist cause, and to a slowly growing desire to find secular solutions to social problems, the formerly pious and devout Congregationalist became an atheist.
, an area north of Boston
bordering Malden and Melrose, into a public park; although he did not succeed during his lifetime, the plan was carried out later and Middlesex Fells is Middlesex Fells Reservation to this day.
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
and abolitionist. He is sometimes described as the "father of life insurance" for his pioneering work on actuarial tables. He is also sometimes called the "father of insurance regulation", as he campaigned that life insurance companies must keep reserves, and served as Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner.
Early life
Wright was part of a devout ChristianChristian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
family who held anti-slavery beliefs and instilled in him a strict moral character. In 1826, Wright graduated from Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
and began to teach, first in Groton, Massachusetts
Groton, Massachusetts
Groton is a town located in northwestern Middlesex County, Massachusetts. The population was 10,646 at the 2010 census. It is home to two noted prep schools: Groton School, founded in 1884, and Lawrence Academy at Groton, founded in 1793. The historic town hosts the National Shepley Hill Horse...
, then at Hudson, Ohio
Hudson, Ohio
Hudson is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States. The population was 22,262 at the 2010 census. It is an affluent exurban community and is part of the Akron, Ohio Metropolitan Statistical Area...
as a mathematics and philosophy professor at Western Reserve College. It was during this time that Wright first encountered the writings of William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison was a prominent American abolitionist, journalist, and social reformer. He is best known as the editor of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, and as one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, he promoted "immediate emancipation" of slaves in the United...
. Garrison's pamphlet, "Thoughts on African Colonization," persuaded Wright to believe that slavery should immediately be abolished, and that the American Colonization Society
American Colonization Society
The American Colonization Society , founded in 1816, was the primary vehicle to support the "return" of free African Americans to what was considered greater freedom in Africa. It helped to found the colony of Liberia in 1821–22 as a place for freedmen...
's effort to deport free blacks to an African colony was immoral and ineffective.
Mathematics career
In 1829 he became Professor of Mathematics at Western Reserve CollegeWestern Reserve College
Western Reserve College may refer to:* Western Reserve Academy, a private, mid-sized, coeducational boarding and day college preparatory school located in Hudson, Ohio...
in Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
. According to Frank Preston Stearns
Frank Preston Stearns
Frank Preston Stearns , the son of abolitionist George Luther Stearns, was a writer and abolitionist from Massachusetts during the 19th century...
, he became interested in life insurance
Life insurance
Life insurance is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death of the insured person. Depending on the contract, other events such as terminal illness or critical illness may also trigger...
as a mathematical
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
study and read "the best works on life insurance ... with the same ardor with which young ladies devour an exciting novel."
In the spring of 1852 an insurance broker
Insurance broker
An insurance broker finds sources for contracts of insurance on behalf of their customers. The three largest insurance brokers in the world, by revenue, are Aon, Marsh & McLennan, and Willis Group Holdings.-Purpose of insurance brokers:...
"placed an advertising booklet in his hand... Elizur Wright looked it over and perceived quickly enough that no company could undertake to do what this one pretended to and remain solvent. The booklet served him for an editorial," and he embarked on a successful crusade to reform
Reform movement
A reform movement is a kind of social movement that aims to make gradual change, or change in certain aspects of society, rather than rapid or fundamental changes...
the insurance industry.
He developed actuarial tables and the mathematics for calculating life insurance
Life insurance
Life insurance is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death of the insured person. Depending on the contract, other events such as terminal illness or critical illness may also trigger...
premiums. He campaigned for valuation laws requiring life insurance companies to hold sufficient reserves
Statutory reserve
In the business of insurance, statutory reserves are those liabilities an insurance company is legally required to maintain on its balance sheet with respect to the unmatured obligations of the company.-Life insurance:...
to guarantee that benefits would be paid, and nonforfeiture laws requiring the companies to provide cash surrender values. He also served as state commissioner of insurance for Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, from 1858 to 1866.http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~gsimon/Wright01.pdf
He invented a form of cylindrical slide rule
Slide rule
The slide rule, also known colloquially as a slipstick, is a mechanical analog computer. The slide rule is used primarily for multiplication and division, and also for functions such as roots, logarithms and trigonometry, but is not normally used for addition or subtraction.Slide rules come in a...
.
Abolitionist
Along with Lewis Tappan, Arthur TappanArthur Tappan
Arthur Tappan was an American abolitionist. He was the brother of Senator Benjamin Tappan, and abolitionist Lewis Tappan.-Biography:...
, Theodore Weld, James Birney
James Birney
James Birney may refer to:*James G. Birney , American presidential candidate for the Liberty Party*James M. Birney , Michigan politician, son of James G. Birney...
, and other like-minded individuals, Wright founded the American Anti-Slavery Society
American Anti-Slavery Society
The American Anti-Slavery Society was an abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan. Frederick Douglass was a key leader of this society and often spoke at its meetings. William Wells Brown was another freed slave who often spoke at meetings. By 1838, the society had...
in 1833. Wright became the national secretary of the organization. At this time, the American Anti-Slavery Society espoused the immediate abolition of slavery, called for an end to all racial prejudice and equality for all. To effect this change, members practiced a policy of "moral suasion," an appeal to people's ethics
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
in an attempt to get them to embrace abolitionism and renounce slavery as sinful.
Wright edited a large number of publications, including The Emancipator and the Quarterly Anti-Slavery Magazine. He was also involved in "The Great Postal Campaign"a project whose job was to distribute abolitionist material across the country. The Anti-Slavery Society was successful in recruiting agents throughout the country to spread their message, but when Garrison and others began to broaden the scope of the Society to include women's rights and took on an anti-religion, anti-government tone, Wright and others objected and began to split from the Society in 1840.
Wright became involved with the newly created Liberty Party
Liberty Party (1840s)
The Liberty Party was a minor political party in the United States in the 1840s . The party was an early advocate of the abolitionist cause...
and began to separate from the evangelists
Evangelists
Evangelists may refer to:* Evangelists , Christians who specialize in evangelism* Evangelists , one of the five Ascension Gift Ministries* Four Evangelists, the authors of the four Gospel accounts in the New Testament...
and the religious anti-slavery movements, believing that government intervention was the way to abolition. Wright was arrested and charged for aiding in the escape of the first black man to be seized in New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
under the Fugitive Slave Act. He was not convicted. He edited the Massachusetts Abolitionist and the Chronotype before eventually becoming estranged from the abolitionist movement altogether. Moreover, due partially to disappointment in the Church's lack of support for the Abolitionist cause, and to a slowly growing desire to find secular solutions to social problems, the formerly pious and devout Congregationalist became an atheist.
Public parks
He initiated and promoted plans for making Middlesex FellsMiddlesex Fells Reservation
Middlesex Fells Reservation, often referred to simply as the Fells, is a Massachusetts state park located in Malden, Medford, Melrose, Stoneham, and Winchester...
, an area north of Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
bordering Malden and Melrose, into a public park; although he did not succeed during his lifetime, the plan was carried out later and Middlesex Fells is Middlesex Fells Reservation to this day.
Other activities
Wright served as an officer of the National Liberal LeagueNational Liberal League (United States)
The National Liberal League of the United States advocated separation of church and state, and freedom of religion. The league evolved into the American Secular Union in 1884.-History:...
.
External links
- The Fables of La Fontaine, translated by Elizur Wright; Project Gutenberg text.
- Cambridge Sketches by Frank Preston Stearns; has a section on Elizur Wright.
- Actuary Hall of Fame contains a brief account of Wright's life.
- Elizur Wright Business Papers at Baker Library Historical Collections, Harvard Business School.
- Elizur Wright Papers, Manuscript Division, The Library of Congress.