Lysander Spooner

Lysander Spooner (January 19, 1808 – May 14, 1887) was an American classical liberal political philosopher, abolitionist, and legal theorist of the 19th century. He is best known for his role in the abolitionist movement to end slavery, competing with the U.S. Post Office, and for his contributions to American individualist anarchism.

Life Overview

Spooner was born on a farm in Athol, Massachusetts, on January 19, 1808, and died "at one o'clock in the afternoon of Saturday, May 14, 1887 in his little room at 109 Myrtle Street, surrounded by trunks and chests bursting with the books, manuscripts, and pamphlets which he had gathered about him in his active pamphleteer's warfare over half a century long." — from Our Nestor Taken From Us by Benjamin Tucker

Related Topics:
Athol - Massachusetts - 1887 - Benjamin Tucker

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Later known as an early individualist anarchist, Spooner advocated what he called Natural Law — or the Science of Justice — wherein acts of actual coercion against individuals and their property were considered "illegal" but the so-called criminal acts that violated only man-made legislation were not. Spooner was a lifelong deist.

Related Topics:
Individualist anarchist - Natural Law - Coercion - Deist

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