Bell, James Madison, 1826-1902

found: Dict. of Amer. Negro biog.(Bell, James Madison; b. 1826, Gallipolis, Ohio; d. 1902; artisan, poet, orator, and politician)

found: African American National Biography, accessed April 25, 2015, via Oxford African American Studies Center database:(Bell, James Madison; abolitionist, lecturer, poet; born 03 April 1826 in Gallipolis, Ohio, United States; at age sixteen (1842) moved to Cincinnati; attended Cincinnati High School for Colored People; learned the plastering trade from his brother-in-law; moved his family to Chatham, Ontario, Canada, feeling that he would be freer under the authority of the British government (1854); moved to San Francisco, California, where he became involved in the fight to ensure equal education for local black children (1860); was an active member and steward of the AME Church in San Francisco; wrote some of his most rousing poems while living in California, including "Emancipation," "Lincoln," and "The Dawn of Freedom"; was elected as a delegate from Lucas County to the state convention and as a delegate at large from the state of Ohio to the Republican National Convention (1868 and 1872); died probably in 1902 in Toledo, Ohio, United States)