A visit to a slave plantation silenced Daniel Webster against abolition.

Evidence

The Taylors established Christian churches in Columbia and always supported them. Religion exerted a strong influence on their attitudes and practices towards their servants. Colonel Thomas Taylor’s son, Benjamin Franklin, sheds light on the question and apparently was in the middle of the slavery issue of the day, dying in 1852. Daniel Webster is said to have visited his plantation, EdgeHill, to study slavery and after which he ceased to speak against it in the United States Senate. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 482

Categorization

• QUESTION: Is Webster’s silence after EdgeHill a documented fact or a Taylor-family claim serving their self-image? Worth checking independently.