Levi D. Slamm (c. 1812 – October 6, 1862,

Mamaroneck Mamaroneck ( ), is a town in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 31,758 at the 2020 United States census over 29,156 at the 2010 census. There are two villages contained within the town: Larchmont and the Villag ...

, New York) was an American labor leader, the editor of the ''Daily Plebeian'', a radical DemocratEarle, Jonathan Halperin (2004) ''Jacksonian Antislavery and the Politics of Free Soil, 1824-1854'' University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC, USA, p. 25, and a leader of New York City's

Locofocos The Locofocos (also Loco Focos or Loco-focos) were a faction of the Democratic Party in American politics that existed from 1835 until the mid-1840s. History The faction, originally named the Equal Rights Party, was created in New York City as ...

. Slamm was born in New York City, the son of a Revolutionary War veteran and a grocer. Slamm followed in his father's profession but eventually became a locksmith. As a young man in 1830, Slamm sailed aboard the ''Corvo'' from Boston under Capt. Jeremiah Spalding in August, together with

Samuel Colt Samuel Colt (; July 19, 1814 – January 10, 1862) was an American inventor, industrialist, and businessman who established Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company and made the mass production of revolvers commercially viable. Col ...

, the firearms inventor, and apparently they became fast friends. When the economic troubles of the 1830s began, he joined the Locofocos and soon became one of the most influential, in part through his publication of the radical periodical the ''Daily Plebeian''. The ''New York Herald'' nicknamed the Locofocos "Slamm, Bang, and Company" in reference to Levi and another party leader, Henry Bangs. In 1838, together with Locofocos Alexander Ming Jr. and Charles Ferris, Slamm struck a deal with the

Tammany Hall Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was an American political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789, as the Tammany Society. It became the main local ...

General Committee to adopt the entire Locofoco's radical ''Declaration of Rights'', thus uniting the two halves of New York's Democratic Party that had been in schism since 1835. Following this success, Slamm was appointed to be a purser in the United States Navy. Soon after his naval appointment Slamm married Jane E. Morsell in December, 1846. He died as a result of injuries received while boarding a ship in

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

Notes

References

*Fink, Gary M. (ed.) (1974) "Levi D. Slamm" ''Biographical Dictionary of American Labor Leaders'' Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, *Fink, Gary M. (ed.) (1984) "Levi D. Slamm" ''Biographical Dictionary of American Labor'' Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, {{DEFAULTSORT:Slamm, Levi D. American trade union leaders 19th-century American newspaper publishers (people) 1810s births 1862 deaths New York (state) Democrats People from Mamaroneck, New York 19th-century American journalists American male journalists 19th-century American male writers