Samuel Gridley Howe
Samuel Gridley Howe (November 10, 1801 – January 9, 1876)[1] was an American physician, abolitionist, and advocate of education for the blind. He organized and was the first director of the Perkins Institution. In 1824, he had gone to Greece to serve in the revolution as a surgeon; he also commanded troops. He arranged for support for refugees and brought many Greek children back to Boston with him for their education.
Samuel Gridley Howe
November 10, 1801
January 9, 1876 (aged 74)
Physician, abolitionist
An abolitionist, Howe was one of three men appointed by the Secretary of War to the American Freedmen's Inquiry Commission, to investigate conditions of freedmen in the South since the Emancipation Proclamation and recommend how they could be aided in their transition to freedom. In addition to traveling to the South, Howe traveled to Canada West (now Ontario, Canada), where thousands of former slaves had escaped to freedom and established new lives. He interviewed freedmen as well as government officials in Canada.
Greek Revolution[edit]
Howe did not remain in Massachusetts for long after graduating. In 1824, shortly after Howe was certified to practice medicine, he became fired by enthusiasm for the Greek Revolution and the example of his idol, Lord Byron. Howe fled the memory of an unhappy love affair and sailed for Greece, where he joined the Greek army as a surgeon.[5][9]
In Greece, his services were not confined to the duties of a surgeon but were of a more military nature. Howe's bravery, enthusiasm, and ability as a commander, as well as his humanity, won him the title "the Lafayette of the Greek Revolution."[10] Howe returned to the United States in 1827 to raise funds and supplies to help alleviate the famine and suffering in Greece.[11] Howe's fervid appeals enabled him to collect about $60,000, which he spent on provisions, clothing, and the establishment of a relief depot for refugees near Aegina.[11] He later formed another colony for exiles on the Isthmus of Corinth. Afterward, Howe wrote an account of the revolt, Historical Sketch of the Greek Revolution, which was published in 1828.[12] He brought back with him Lord Byron's helmet, which he later had on display in his house in Boston.[13]: 31
Samuel Gridley Howe brought many Greek refugee children back with him to the United States to educate them. Two who later gained prominence were John Celivergos Zachos, who became an abolitionist and activist for women's rights, and Christophorus P. Castanis.[14] Castanis survived the Chios massacre. He later wrote a memoir about these events, The Greek Exile, Or, a Narrative of the Captivity and Escape of Christophorus Plato Castanis (1851). He mentioned both Dr. Howe and John Celivergos Zachos in this book.[15]
Howe continued his medical studies in Paris. His enthusiasm for a republican form of government led him to take part in the July Revolution.[16]
Antislavery activities[edit]
Howe entered publicly into the antislavery struggle for the first time in 1846 when, as a "Conscience Whig", he was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress against Robert C. Winthrop.[10] Howe was one of the founders of an antislavery newspaper, the Boston Daily Commonwealth, which he edited (1851–1853) with the assistance of his wife Julia Ward Howe.[36] He was a prominent member of the Kansas Committee in Massachusetts.
With Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, George Luther Stearns, Theodore Parker, and Gerrit Smith, he was interested in the plans of abolitionist John Brown. Although he disapproved of the attack upon Harpers Ferry, Howe had funded John Brown's work as a member of the Secret Six.[37] After Brown's arrest, Howe temporarily fled to Canada to escape prosecution.[37]
According to later accounts by Howe's daughter, Florence Hall, the Howes' South Boston home was a stop on the Underground Railroad.[38] This is uncertain, but it is known that Howe vehemently opposed the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, which required law enforcement even in free states to support efforts to catch fugitive slaves. Two incidents clearly demonstrate this. In May 1854, Howe, along with Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Theodore Parker, and other abolitionists, stormed Faneuil Hall in order to try to free a captured refugee slave, Anthony Burns. Burns was going to be shipped back to his slave owner in Virginia in accordance with the Fugitive Slave Law.[39] The abolitionists hoped to rescue Burns from that fate. Howe declared outside the hall that "No man's freedom is safe until all men are free."[39] Shortly afterward the abolitionists stormed the hall, breaking through the door with a battering ram. A deputy officer was murdered in the ensuing fracas.[39] Federal troops suppressed the attempted takeover, and Burns was returned to Virginia.[39] The men did not abandon Burns, however. Within a year of his capture, they had raised enough money to purchase Burns's freedom from his slave owner.[39]
In October 1854, with the help of Capt. Austin Bearse and his brother, Howe rescued an escaped slave[40] who had entered Boston Harbor from Jacksonville, Florida, as a stowaway aboard the brig Cameo.[41] Violating the Fugitive Slave Act, the Boston Vigilance Committee helped the man evade slave-catchers and reach freedom.[41]
In 1863 during the American Civil War, Howe was appointed to the American Freedmen's Inquiry Commission, and traveled both to the Deep South and to Canada to investigate the condition of emancipated slaves. Freedmen in Canada had often reached it via the Underground Railroad.[42] Life in Canada wasn't free from the bigotry that Freedmen and women rewrote for the northern states as well as the South, but Howe found that their lives as free people were much improved. He noted that they were enfranchised and their rights protected by the government.[42] They could earn a living, marry, and attend school and church out of reach of slave-catchers.[42] He published an account of his interviews and experiences, The Refugees from Slavery in Canada West (1864).[43] He submitted his report to the Secretary of War, and it became part of the commission's material for Congress. It contributed to passage of the law establishing the Freedmen's Bureau, considered needed to aid the Southern freedmen in transition.
Civil War and Reconstruction[edit]
During the Civil War, Howe was one of the directors of the Sanitary Commission. Its goal was to raise funds to improve hygiene standards and prevent outbreaks of disease at Union camps. Because of the lack of sanitation, camps were breeding grounds for such illnesses as dysentery, typhoid, and malaria. In addition, the Commission provided supplies and medical services to troops.[44]
At the close of the Civil War, Howe began to work with the Freedmen's Bureau.[45] This extended his work as an abolitionist. The Freedmen's Bureau was to help house, feed, clothe, educate, and provide medical care to newly-freed slaves in the South after the Civil War.[46][47] In some instances, Bureau staff helped freedmen to locate and reunite with relatives who had either fled north or who had been sold away during slavery.[48]
Legacy and honors[edit]
The World War II Liberty Ship SS Samuel G. Howe was named in his honor.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. wrote a "stirring lyric" about Howe, as did John Greenleaf Whittier ("The Hero").[13]: 31